Issue 113
Work can be a very absorbing activity and yet it is full of Paradoxes: you can be very busy and achieve little; you can be very successful and feel a failure; you can go through difficulties, yet feel challenged; You can feel called to a work but experience boredom. In the middle of these experiences, you find your routines and habits and form relationships with co-workers; this is normal, usual, common-place and time consuming. So much energy and thought goes into work that it can be described as distracting or consuming. Here is where danger lies. The risk is that this attention-grabbing activity called work can so suck you into its agendas that significant things can be missed.
What could be more significant than the arrival of the Son of God on your doorstep? What a chance to be part of history. Yet the owners of the business were so absorbed in their work that they missed the birth of God. They could have been party to the greatest celebration possible and experienced the astonishing – but they missed it.
Martha was so busy being hospitable that she missed the meaning of a visit from God in her home. Noble yet misguided notions of busyness clouded her mind and so she lost the message.
The very unpleasant work of soldiering, which involved the execution of prisoners, had to be done; orders had to be obeyed. Gathering to guard the foot of the cross, the soldiers were standing on the holiest ground on earth. The business that was being transacted above their heads was significant beyond words. But they busied themselves by dividing up the clothes of the prisoners, when they could have worshipped and humbled themselves at the place of forgiveness and healing.
It is easy to describe these moments as sacred – for they were. It is certainly sad to see that those who were so close to them were distracted by their work and missing the moments, their meaning and their power. In so doing they missed out on celebrations, wisdom, worship and healing. But some got it: shepherds and wise men got it, Mary got it and one centurion got it. Then everything changed. If you are a Christian, hopefully you have spotted the sacred moments in the gospels, but they have not stopped happening. Less spectacular, maybe, and not so earth-shattering, but the Son of God is still with you at work. By being absorbed, busy, distracted or consumed, you can miss the moments and him. Getting it will take all your skills, focus and attention. It is absorbing, challenging and complex. The paradox is that once you get it, all the moments are transformed into sacred ones.
John 19:23-24
23When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them9into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining.9This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. 24″Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”9 This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,9″They divided my garments among them9and cast lots for my clothing.”9 So this is what the soldiers did.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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