JOBS -  We receive so much from our jobs.  Money, status, friends, stress, heartaches, disillusionment etc. etc.  Isn't it true we get both good and bad things from our jobs?

For many of us, jobs become the context for the expenditure of some of our most valuable resources - time and energy.  Many find fulfillment and expression in their jobs.  Sometimes, when things are going tough at home we can even find escape in our jobs.

And yet, a vast majority of people do not enjoy their jobs.  They feel overworked and under appreciated.  They wake up dreading the thought of having to go to work another day or night.  It begins to resemble a long, grey line of drudgery, "paying your dues" just to get a paycheck.

How can we find a job that is meaningful?  How can we work in a setting that does not destroy our self esteem?  Where can we go to gain the necessary means to live without selling freedom for a company song?

In a section of his letter to the church at Colossae, the Apostle Paul gives some practical "house rules" for Christian living.  He describes healthy home relationships then moves to writing about slave and master, employer and employee relationships.  In the middle of this context he writes,

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving." [Colossians 3:23-24]

I get the idea from that passage that my job is not just my way of bringing home the bacon or putting bread on the table.  Nor is it my sole means of finding and expressing who I really am inside.  No, my job is only a channel to express my love for the Lord.  I work "with all my heart" because my heart belongs ultimately to God.  I am not owned by the company, working to just pay the mortgage. 

In a job I have a mission of serving my loving Lord.  He has already reserved for me - in my name - an inheritance.  And that's something I can't work for.  It's given by God's grace to me as a member of Jesus' family, through His death, by faith in Him. 

So, I neither work to live, or live to work.  Instead I want to work to express my reason for being called into my job to make a "holy difference."  My job may pay the bills but it does not have to be the thing that defines my worth or my feelings about my importance. 

It's a struggle to make that shift in thinking, and harder to live out.  But it is liberating to figure out who the real "boss" is and what my real job means.  Then I can start living and working for Him . . . with all my heart.

• What part of your job right now do you find most difficult?
• How can you think of God as your boss and your job as a mission?
• How can a friend help you change your approach to your job?