Issue 097
There is a question which many of us ask of our work. It takes various forms but it is framed around the hope that something that we do will be significant. Underneath it is a desire to make a difference. There is a wish that we will not have walked down our path without leaving any footprints at all. We want someone to notice and something to have happened. It is not just about our fifteen minutes of fame or our moment in the sun, it has to do with wondering, “is there something that I was born to do?”
There are times in our working week when the concept of making a difference is ludicrous to us. The tasks seem so mundane and pointless that the overwhelming feeling is of meaninglessness rather than purpose. Yet we crave meaning and purpose and we long for a point even if it only lasts a short while.
When the Magi opened their luggage and gave their presents to Joseph, Mary and their son, the last gift was an African or Arabian tree exudate called myrrh. It had a history of being used in purification rites but its future relationship to the new- born child was to be more poignant. It surfaces again as aningredient in the drink offered to him on the cross and as one of the spices used at his burial. This gift pointed forward to the answer to our question for this individual’s life. He was born to perform a piece of work which was for him to be the culmination of all his life’s work. It was the work he had to complete to achieve the purpose of his life. This work was a death. We don’t see death as work – more often we see work as killing us – but for him death was the point. The myrrh from these Magi pointed forward to the moment of meaning and purpose which lay behind the arrival of this boy on the planet.
Sitting or standing in your workplace this week, you probably feel a world away from that sense of destiny which has just been described. As you drink your coffee or unwrap your lunch, your thoughts may be more on managing the mundane than discovering your dream.
But that is literally to miss the point. The death that this young Nazarene came to die was not just his defining moment but yours as well. The work he came to do was a rescue project. It was designed to rescue the creeping meaninglessness which paralyses human endeavours. The ransom payment of his life has purchased your freedom from the very drudgery which seems to characterise the working week. His death was his calling but it is also yours. This same individual called us to follow him, taking up the cross every day. The other gifts of the Magi help us here. Symbolic gold calls us to allow Christ to rule as King in our lives. The frankincense speaks of the Nazarene priest. The myrrh tells us that his work will rescue ours and calls us to work and walk daily taking a cross upon ourselves.
You don’t just work for your employer; you work for the King. You are not on your own; the lines to the Father are open. Your working style now involves daily taking up the cross and following him. The challenge is not to work out the grand plan but to play a part in it. It is not just the huge meaning that should concern us but realising that each task has a meaning and purpose. As you take up this working style on a daily basis, your life has a daily purpose and point. As the days move on, the picture may get clearer, larger and more obvious. Where it will lead you, I have no idea; the call is to follow him, not me. We do know, however, that following him is never meaningless. This is the work you were born to do.
John 19:25-27
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” 27and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 17:1-5
1After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: 2″Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 5And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began
Luke 11: 1-4
1One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” 2He said to them, “When you pray, say: ” ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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