Heavy Loads

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you. --I Thessalonians 4:11

“Do not let down and do not stop working; the time is near!” “Are you doing all you can? People are dying, so where is your vision for missions? Get up! Go around the block preaching; there are those in your neighborhood who need saving!” “How can you enjoy your sandwich in the restaurant? Do you not know that sinners surround you?” “You only have so much time; do not waste it on anything but ministry!” Blah . . . blah . . . blah!

Usually we hear such things from someone who is in “full-time ministry” with no other job commitments. In the majority of the places to which I travel, those with whom I minister have full-time jobs and consider all of their activities to be an extension of ministry. “Ministry” must be redefined; it is not constant talking! Saint Francis said that we are to do everything possible to share the message of Jesus Christ, and then if we absolutely have to, say something! That is an overstatement, since the world must see but also must hear. The beauty of our “religion” is that we do not have to get out of the world, like the Buddhist, in order for it to work. It works right where we work! We do not have to move up a priestly ladder climbing toward heavenly work and moving away from earthly work. Our faith has its impact in the everyday tasks. As we live in Him and He lives through us, life’s activities are filled with Him.I Corinthians 10:31, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Paul did not separate our work under the headings of “secular” and “religious”; he combined it with the use of one word, all. “Do all to the glory of God.”Separation of the all that a believer does has led many to feel as though they are second-class believers, who then become dissatisfied with their vocations while looking for “the great Christian someday,” a day when ministry will fulfill them. Considering the list of admonitions at the start of this article, how do any of them apply to the first thirty years of the Savior’s life? He had a Kingdom to start, apostles to train, the whole of mankind to save, and yet for years He continued to work at a carpenter’s bench! In Him we see that the life of heaven and the life of earth can become one in the daily tasks of humanity.I remember succumbing to the teaching that spirituality equals activity. I felt condemned if I were not witnessing to everyone I met, yet the effort was rarely fruitful. I then discovered rest and became motivated to live for the glory of God. I stopped pressing for salvation decisions and began looking for ways to love. Rarely a week goes by that I do not find myself witnessing, but now it is natural, not contrived of my own doing, and it is fruitful. I love Christianity, for there is nothing else like it; it is unique, absolute, and it is the way.