A Lot Like Work

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2:10

Today's reading says believers are created in Christ. We're created not just in two dimensions as the image of the perfect man, but IN him; we're not a static creation like a painting or piece of sculpture to be admired, studied, and occasionally dusted, but as living art. We're made to move, created to do good work and lots of it - jobs that God laid out for us with care. YES, we're cut out for what we're called to do. Sounds like an active and interesting pursuit, does it not?

Sometimes I need to be reminded! I don't always feel so very active, and at times I'm so tired that even I am not interested in my mission -- so how can I expect that anyone else will be interested in what I have to offer, namely the gospel? At times I feel my activity is a futile process of repeated chores and duties. The soundtrack of my life seems like Lamb Chop's annoying unending loop, "The Song That Never Ends" (Shari Lewis, gotta love ya, you'll live on for that one!)

But life isn't really like that awful song, an unending cycle of sameness. Life is linear. There is direction and purpose, even when I feel like I'm going round and round in circles. Perhaps during the dizzying dry times that seem to do nothing but drain me, the purpose is to learn the hard humility, the obedience, the focused faithfulness to the Lord (and NOT to the prosperity gospel), and steady trust in his word regardless of how I feel.

Christians are like athletes in endurance training for an expedition. It's tedious to reach the top of a steep ascent, back and forth, back and forth, crisscrossing a shaggy mountain, every new turn looking just about like the last. The joy is that to every climb, there is a crest, a stopping point of looking over the top and catching a glimpse of something breathtakingly worthwhile. I pray for a stopping point of rest and refreshment the next time you are wondering whether the work you are doing really matters. The answer is YES!