Issue 130
This week WORKTALKweekly is three years old. This is the 130th edition. For content, we return to the same subject as the first edition, namely that of the storm, but this time from a different angle. Before we examine it, can I remind you that finding an angle on work and spirituality is right at the heart of the WorkNet ministry. Our aim is to help you see things which you may or may not have seen before, but from a different angle. It is this type of seeing which we hope will continue to inspire you to work well by working spiritually. As we celebrate three years of WORKTALKweekly, please feedback your comments to us.
Work is one of the places where you are constantly caught in a battle between two realities. It is easy to see the turbulent, relentless, swirling pressures around you, because they come in tangible forms: of people, paper, e-mails or projects. Targets, reviews, meetings, equipment and tools are observable entities which we encounter through our senses.
The other reality is your Lord. You read about him in the pages of the New Testament and imagine him in your mind. You pray to him and sometimes feel his presence. You even will speak sometimes of seeing his hand at work but it is not quite as solid as the screen you are watching or the paper you are holding.
Peter, working with his fellow workers to get a boat across a lake (which was his workplace and area of expertise), is shocked to see Jesus turning up. Perhaps you have become so used to meeting him in Church that you have forgotten that he comes to work. Anyway, for Peter his fear is overcome as he steps out of the boat to meet Jesus, walking on the water. Peter has never seen the lake from this angle and is nervous. The competing realities are now in sharp focus and contrast. He is now working spiritually and treading on fish rather than chasing them. This is new and exhilarating. Unfortunately, one reality gets the better of him, and as he looks around, he starts to sink – the wind and the waves grab his mind.
The lesson is not as obvious as it seems. It wasn’t Peter’s vision that was keeping him afloat, but Jesus’ power. Jesus’ power did not evaporate just because Peter stopped looking at him. Jesus wanted Peter to realise that if you step out, you start towards him. Take your eyes off where you are heading and you will lose the spiritual dimension to your activity. Focus on the wind and you will lose, not the power of God, but the direction in which to head. Peter could probably swim; his friends could probably have hauled him into the boat, but that would be to head in the wrong direction and to waste too much energy.
In the competing realities of your stormy workplace, it is wise to keep looking at where you are going – that is towards Jesus. It is also an awful lot more fun.
Matthew 14: 22-32
22Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29“Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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