Know How You View “Work”
 
You will sweat and work hard for your food (Genesis 3:19).

How we view “work” can determine whether we wake up each morning with the expectations of great things to come or approach it as a sentence for the rest of our lives.

Is work a job?  Is the primary reason you get up each morning for the paycheck?  Are you strictly motivated by the money you make (or can make)?  Are you just trying to survive?  If a better paying job came along, would you take it?

Is work a career?  Are you on a corporate ladder, working to move into a higher position?  Is your motivation the title, status or prospect of long-term employment?  Are you in search of advancement?

Is work a calling?  Do you genuinely put your heart and soul into the task itself?  Are the results of your work just as, if not more, important than the financial or career advancement it provides?  Is self-satisfaction what you seek from your job?

No view is right or wrong, nor is each view mutually exclusive of the others.  Most of us desire some sort of compensation, recognition, and or purpose for what we do.  However, the frustration and discontent we sometimes feel results from our own unrealized expectations. 

When we are able to understand the role work plays in our lives, we can learn to accept it for what it is, and not try to make it into something it is not.  Furthermore, if we approach our jobs as an opportunity to share Jesus (through our attitude and the excellence of our work), we will not only find satisfaction, but also excel.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. (Colossians 3:23).

Know Who You Are

… to each according to each one’s unique ability (Matthew 25:15).

We have all been blessed with skills and abilities, yet many of us never live up to our potential.  Instead, we dream and long for something other than what we were created to do.  I am reminded of this every season of American Idol, watching those who think they can sing face the reality of those who know they cannot.

This is not to say with hard work, determination, and practice we can’t achieve our dreams.  However there is a big difference between wanting to do something and having the abilities with which to do it.

Those who are most successful in their crafts seem to be those who have discovered their gifts, developed theirs skills and use them for purposes often outside of themselves.  Their passion is their work.