Thursday, March 11, 2010

My Daily Work

For many years now, I have been blessed by the little radio spots by Howard Butts Jr. of Laity Lodge entitled, The High Calling of Our Daily Work, especially since going back to work (outside of home) when my youngest daughter started school. I had been a stay at home mom for seventeen years raising two boys and one girl, though tough at times, my daily work and God were meshed together somewhat naturally. I instinctively knew I needed God to help me be a wife and a mother and I relied on Him to show me what to do.

When my daughter started school, I took a part time job with a local bank. After 17 years at home, this was culture shock! Even though I had worked in the bank environment before, learning to work with (and care about) people who did not rely on the Lord was eye-opening and challenging. I found that many people didn’t know Him nor did they even care to find out about Him. The way that conflict and even joy was handled, differed from person to person, and I wasn’t quite sure how to react at times. I did not choose to follow Christ until I was 26 years old, but having been raised “in church”, I tried the best I knew how to behave like I thought He wanted me to. Rebellion against Him was pretty new to me. I heard The High Calling of Our Daily Work during this time and loved how it encouraged me in the situations I found myself facing.

It has been well over 10 years since I have gone back into the work force (now in Health Care) and I have adjusted to the diversity of working outside the home. In fact, I like it. I have been in different situations – with coworkers who were also believers, with those of Jewish faith, and flat out atheists. And one thing I have learned is that I cannot separate my work from my faith. Not only has it become impossible (how else would I get through the day?), but I do not even want to try. Recently, someone shared with me how she didn’t care to work with people who were not believers in Christ. My response was, “It is so fun! And God gives you opportunity to share with others about His love! I wouldn’t want to miss that for anything now that I have experienced the joy of assisting Him here.”

So, I look for ways specific to combining work and faith. The High Calling of Our Daily Work is one of those things. Recently, I joined the High Calling Internet network or TheHighCalling.org. It is a website that exists to help Christians connect with God in every part of their daily life, including their work. Every week, they publish new content to help encourage people with a simple message: God cares about your work. I am so excited to be blessed enough to participate; I thought I would share the site with you!

Check them out! TheHighCalling.org

2 comments:

lorinilsen said...

Where's the "like" button? ~love you

Laura said...

Liz,
I love reading more of your story. High Calling is such a source of encouragement and inspiration for me.

Sending love,
laura