Workship

It has been close to a month since I updated this  - I would excuse it by saying I have had too much work but then I would be revealing how badly I listen to my own advice considering we just completed a 4 week series on "A Theology of Work"! We discovered that work - vocation - is integral to the image of God - that we participate in His creative and redemptive work as we work - that His redemption has broken the curse and finally that we always begin first with REST.

For this post I was looking up in my concordance the word for "cultivate" as used in Gen 2:15. I found the word and the proper reference and checked the number next to it - #5647 - I turned to the back of the concordance but accidentally looked at #5447. It said " burden ... load." I  panicked thinking I had misled the church - perhaps what we all thought was true - our vocations are just a heavy load! Fortunately I discovered my error and turned to the correct entry - yes - just as we had studied... the word for cultivate - the vocation God gave to Adam - is sometimes translated - WORSHIP. I must admit - particularly last week - I viewed my vocations as a load or burden to carry rather than offerings of worship. But as we learned from Luther - God is hidden in our vocations - as we find Him moment by moment - there are unending opportunities to grow, serve and worship.

I received a prayer request from a someone in the church yesterday. He asked for prayer during a very challenging time at his job - his request was that he would not just survive the challenges - he wanted to thrive in them. This is letting our vocations be worship and God is glorified - not necessarily by getting it right - but rather turning to Him again and again and again and again.