Issue 109
If you work from age 16 to 65, you may well work 11,515 days (accounting for holidays and weekends). You may want to do the numbers for yourself, but it is probably ok to assume that on average you work around 235 days per year if you work full-time.
However you look at it, it’s a lot of days: 11,515 breakfasts, 23,030 journeys to and from work (if you travel) and, a huge number of “Good Mornings”!
The sheer number of working days, and their relentless part in our lives, throw up all kinds of challenges; just keeping going and surviving is one of them; keeping fresh and not losing heart or becoming bored is another. For Christians the challenge is to be a Christian every day. There are a number of activities which we are encouraged to pursue on a daily basis, but perhaps the most challenging is to take up a cross daily. It comes in the middle of two other phrases, namely ‘denying the self’ and ‘following Jesus’. It is quite in keeping with Jesus’ style that these three phrases give us three insights into the same challenge,.
So now another routine is added to your life. Get up, dress, breakfast, take up cross, travel to work. Taking up the cross and taking it to work is something you need to do 235 times per year (the other days you can take your cross somewhere else).
But what does it mean? Certainly it is not a little phrase inviting us to pick up a wooden tool of execution. This is something you do as an act of inner will. It is not forced upon you so it is a matter of choice – although once the choice to follow Jesus is made, daily cross-taking is one of the of the conditions of service. So, by means of prayer and personal decision you take up your cross.
How will this affect your working practices? It may mean praying -for the cross is a place of prayer; it may mean forgiveness – for the cross is a place of forgiveness; it may mean witness – for the cross is a place of witness; it may mean compassion, struggle, battle, finishing a task, giving hope, bringing people together, standing alone, suffering pain, or even be a place of miracle – for the cross is a place of all of these things and more. What it will mean for you will be different from its meaning to someone else – it’s your cross. It will also mean different things on different days, or even at different times of the day. You will only know what it will mean as you take it up on a daily basis. It may be painful, but one thing is certain, it won’t be boring or stale; there is an infinite variety of experiences awaiting you. Following him never was boring.
Luke 9:22-23
22And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” 23Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
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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