Issue 326
To be honest a lot of what you do each day is ordinary, prosaic and even mundane. You may write a letter, open a file, read an email, move an item, scrub-up, give some advice or do a deal. They are actions or tasks, which, in and of themselves are ordinary and make up the fabric of your days. What changes your perspective on these tasks is the meaning you attach to them and the importance you attach to them. Scrubbing up could be seen as an ordinary action when seen to be preparing to clean a floor, but changes meaning when preparing to transplant a liver. An email can be a piece of information or contain life changing messages or an expression of love.
It is the attachment of meaning and investment of importance which somehow transforms an ordinary action into a significant task. Tasks become life saving, enhancing, or even more enjoyable; they assume levels of importance to you because something is riding on them that matters to you or some other interested party.
A lot of these transforming factors reside in the realm of your thoughts and feelings or the less tangible world of faith and belief.
Here is an innate risk in your working day: it is possible to assume tasks are mundane, ordinary and even meaningless and just get on with them because they have to be done, but there is a spiritual backdrop to the days you live and an unseen drama being played out behind the scenes, which, if ignored, leads to danger and confusion.
However unfashionable and unpalatable it may seem, I am pointing out that there is an unseen battle raging behind the scenes, and the mundane. When Jesus of Nazareth did his work on the cross he spoke words, he gave comfort, he prayed prayers and he revealed his humanity; he reported completion and modelled good working practices. But whilst doing what he was doing he was involved in a full on battle. When you look at the cross through centuries of Christian wisdom you can see the battle aspect but it was not at all obvious to the eye witnesses. Certainly they saw the struggle and the physical pain. They saw the agony on his face and heard the anguish in his words, but this was crucifixion – of course it was a struggle. What they didn’t see was the spiritual battle unfolding simultaneously; that is the challenge.
It is easy to see struggle at work; it is easy to see problems, challenges and obstacles; everybody faces them. The other men crucified beside Jesus could see and experience the actual struggle.
The hard thing is to see the spiritual conflict. Let’s be clear, if you want to serve the purposes of God then no aspect of your life is off limits. Your enemies will use every possible tactic, strategy and approach to stop you. From a minor health problem to a shortage of equipment, staff or funding – from a subtle anxiety to a major assault – everything is up for attack and anything can become a weapon.
Before you write my words off as paranoia, you might like to read how Jesus rebuked the power behind Peter or how Peter describes the roaring lion, or how Paul advocates the use of spiritual armour, or James calls for resistance. Call me paranoid if you like (I’d rather you didn’t like) but surely not Jesus, Peter, Paul, James and all the other New Testament leaders?
Seeing the enemy is half the battle – employing the right strategy, deploying the right resources, and engaging the right way is the rest. For now, it’s our last piece for solving the Love Work puzzle. In the end the puzzle gets solved when the battle is won, and the battle is won when love works and work loves.
1 Peter 5:8
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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