Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work by Tom Nelson

Author:Tom Nelson [Tom Nelson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2011-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

MEDITATION AND MULTITASKING

Multitasking is a big thing these days. We talk on our cell phones as we make dinner. We eat our lunches as we drive to our next appointment. We keep track of the stock market as we respond to e-mails. Our brains have the amazing capacity to do several things at once. Sometimes our multitasking can be a distraction and even dangerous, but it also can be a helpful skill. Because of our multitasking ability, we can concentrate on our work and at the same time allow the words of Christ to richly dwell within us. While we do good work, we can foster a close and intimate communion with our heavenly Father. Even while doing the most mundane tasks, we can enjoy fellowship with God and practice his presence.

As a pastor I have repeatedly observed that those who not only do good work but flourish spiritually in the workplace have cultivated and continue to practice the spiritual discipline of meditating on God’s Word while they work. But this requires us to shift away from what is often our compartmentalized thinking about worship and work. No one is more gifted in multitasking than a stay-at-home mom. A mom running a household with small children juggles several balls in the air at the same time. I was always amazed watching my wife, Liz, as she kept track of so many things at one time and still maintained her sanity while doing it. Yet if you were to ask her today about her demanding work, Liz would say that it was in the crucible of the multitude of demands she experienced every day as a stay-at-home mom that a more robust theology of vocation was forged. Her vocational calling to manage a household and raise two small children paved the way for a more seamless life of work and worship.

A stay-at-home mom in our congregation began to grasp the transforming truth of taking God’s Word with her to her workplace. I was delighted to receive an e-mail from her that described her growing seamlessness of work and worship. She wrote,

A stay-at-home mom doesn’t get a lot of accolades or affirmation. No paycheck. No glowing review from their boss. I have been working through these thoughts and feelings and several weeks ago decided I wasn’t going to spend any more time feeling like a victim. . . . I have had a new outlook on life over these past few weeks, and I feel so much better. . . . I have never thought of being a mother as an act of worship. I can look at it in a whole new way now. . . . I can now see the contributions I make to my household as what I was uniquely created to do for this season of life.

We must not compartmentalize our work and our worship, but rather we must learn to see our work as an act of worship. Though God is omnipresent, make it your thoughtful intention to bring God with you to work and mediate on the truths of his Word while you work.

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