Odd Jobs

I hear a little old guy talking and as I look up from where I am seated on the floor, I smile and adjust my focus onto him. "You must have a really important job," he said. I kind of chuckeled cause I was litterally on the floor and typically jobs that require rolling around on the floor are not considered all that important. "Yesterday, you were working on that isle over there and today you are on this isle," he continued. "Thought I would stop by and say hi."

Besides making me smile and laugh, the man validated this work that I have been doing. I do not necessarily need validating, but it is very nice when it comes.

Over the last few months I have occupied my time with many jobs (both paid and volunteer): removing wood trim off front porch pillars, planting flowers and container gardening, updating the community resource book for Jubilee House, answering the crisis hotline for victims of sexual assualt, cat sitting, substitute Sunday School teaching, administration and communications for Gateway Conference's Leadership Summit, filling the pulpit, and doing merchandizing work at lots of (some near and some far away) small town pharmacies.

Over the last three weeks, my merchandizing job has kept me particularly busy. This month we have been working a very large catagory in each pharmacy. What had been four or six hour visits to each store grew to ten to fifteen hours in each store this month. I'm very grateful for the work and enjoy it for the most part. Overhearing conversations and observing behavior is sort of like doing an informal study on rural culture.

My mind and attitude are shifting a bit. This work may or may not be all that important, but being who I am in the presence of lots of different people is important. Even crawling around a pharmacy floor, cleaning shelves, organizing products, pricing them and visiting with people....could this be a way to carry out my vocation?

Perhaps you could say that the Lord has been convicting me about the subtle ways past and present that I de-value run of the mill "work." I have unintentionally adopted this idea that working in a church, doing some sort of officially sanctioned ministry is a higher form of serving the Lord than all other jobs. Please excuse me for being wrong!!!

The litmus test of all work, whether it be "secular" or "sacred" is whether we do the work intentionally to serve God. The "what" of the work is not as important as the "how" of the work is.

A scripture to meditate on: "And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17