Issue 223
Two people go to work on the same day. They both enjoy their jobs and are good at what they do. They are paid well and try to act fairly towards their employers as well as their colleagues. Both have a pension scheme, a mortgage and a car. They each have drive and ambition, they are hungry to succeed and want to progress. Neither wants to fail nor let themselves down. As the years pass they accumulate possessions and build up their reputations as achievers. These two people want to count, to make a difference, to have mattered. They are well-adjusted, engaging characters.
One thanks God for each day lived; the other just lives it. One recognises that it is a privilege to enjoy work because it is a joy to operate in the gifting that God has implanted; the other is rightly proud of their talent and skills.
One sees all reward as on trust from the Father in Heaven and wants to behave ethically in order to honour him and his children. One recognises that security and long term well-being is identified with daily need and dependant upon the generosity of the Lord. The other knows that to provide for family is a duty and responsibility. One is aiming to focus all energy on achieving the purposes of the Kingdom, however hard that is to figure out in the day to day world of work. The other wants to build a career and obtain kudos along with status.
One wishes to see the purposes of God bring about lasting change in the sector in which they work, so that lives that are impacted in this generation and others with the comprehensive good news of the Nazarene. The other wants to be remembered as a high achiever with a moral cutting edge who won and did it “my way”.
One is serving God, the other is serving mammon. The difference is in the eyes and how they see life and in the light that comes into the soul through those eyes. Serving starts with seeing. Serving presents a choice of causes that you will serve. You can’t serve both God and money.
Matthew 6:19-24
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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