Serving The Lord

Collosians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

I saw this verse on Facebook this morning and I felt moved to use it for today’s episode. I think it spoke to me because I know several people that are really not happy with their jobs right now. Sometimes when we are not happy with our jobs we can feel stuck. We don’t feel as though we can quit our job as we need to pay our bills, we may have a family to take care of, we may need the medical insurance. Whatever the reason is, just quitting our job because we are unhappy with it is not a feasible option. However, staying in a job where you are unhappy and stressed out or angry every day is also not good for your physical or mental health. So, what is one to do when they are stuck in this situation.

I think that today’s verse can help with this situation. Sometimes a situation that seems unbearable can become bearable with a change in perspective. This may seem too easy and some of you may be rolling your eyes and thinking that I am a Ms. Sunshine Pollyanna that always sees the good in everything and thinks that everything can be fixed with a positive attitude. While you are not wrong, I do feel as though a good attitude can make any situation better, I am also not saying that a perspective switch would be easy. We are all pretty stuck in the way we see things and switching that perspective may be simple but it is not easy.

There are many factors that can go into not liking our job. One of the main reasons is that we don’t like our bosses. We think they don’t treat us well, or we don’t understand where they are coming from. This can make working for them really difficult. It is hard to go to work each day and try to do your best when you don’t respect the person you are working for, and it is even harder when you are feeling unappreciated or poorly compensated for this job that you are doing.

This verse is letting us know that we should always try to do our best work and to put our whole heart into our work. Instead of thinking of your job as something that you are doing to make your boss happy or something you are doing just to get a paycheck, think of your job as something you are doing for God. Think of God as your boss. This shift in perspective may help to make your days go by a little quicker and they may make you try a little harder at your job. It may also make it more enjoyable, if you let it.

We are the masters of our emotions. Well, we can be the masters of our emotions. If we want to be in charge of our emotions then we need to work at it. We need to figure out what we are feeling in different circumstances and why we are feeling it. If we are upset with our boss, it is our responsibility to control our feelings about that situation. There are ways that you can change your feeling about your job or your boss without them changing at all. This may seem crazy, but it is true. We have all heard the saying, “You can’t make anyone change,” or some variation of that. The idea of this is that you can change yourself, but you can’t change anyone else. Although we have all heard this before and at some level we all know this. I don’t think we always believe it. I think that we all think, or maybe just wish, that we could change someone else. We think that the other person is the problem, their actions are the problem and if they would just change, everything would just be better.

This may be true, but most likely it is only partly true. You and your actions are a part of the equation as well. You own a part of each interaction you have. If you change your part of the interaction it will change the whole interaction. It is possible to change your perspective of your job or your boss and then change who you are showing up as at the job. Also, the perspective shift and help change your emotions about your job or your boss. This can make all the difference in the world.

How do we go about changing our perspective? One way is to change the story you are telling yourself each day. I am sure I have probably talked about this before, and that’s because it affects so much of our lives. Each day you are telling yourself a story about your job or your boss. It doesn’t matter if you are happy at your job or not, there is a story you are telling yourself. If you are happy with your job you are probably telling yourself that you like your job, you are well liked there, and you have a great boss and co-workers. If you don’t like your job you may be telling yourself that you hate work, that your boss is out to get you, that you are bored with what you are doing, that your co-workers don’t like you, etc. This story, whatever it is, has an affect on your emotions. If you change your story you change your emotions.

If you want to change your story all you have to do is come up with something that will serve your needs better. Can you see how telling yourself, or saying every day that you hate your job will create negative emotions? Can you see how telling yourself that your boss has it out for you would cause you to not like your boss? One way to do this is to ask yourself some questions. First, why do your think your boss has it out for you? Is there another reason why he may be acting the way he is acting? What could you be telling yourself that would help create a better emotion? One example would be, my boss is really stressed at home and so he is stressed at work. Another would be that he is under a lot of pressure from his boss. The truth is you probably have no idea why he is the way he is. So, if you don’t know the correct story, then why not tell yourself something that creates a better emotion?

Another way to shift your perspective is to try to put yourself in their shoes. Let’s shift from work to another issue. It’s the same concept, but different scenario. What about if you are really frustrated at home because you child is not listening when you tell them to go to bed at night. The story you are telling yourself is probably that they don’t respect you because they are not listening to you. Or maybe you are telling yourself that they are spoiled and just want to get their way. If we want to shift our perspective by putting ourselves in their shoes we would think about other reasons why they might want to stay up. Think back to when we were a child, why did we want to stay up? This helps us to not only change our perspective, but also have a little more empathy for the situation and that helps us react better. In the case of your job, put yourself in your boss or co-workers shoes and try to see a reason why their actions may make sense to them.

The last thing I will leave you with is going back to the verse. The last line of the verse says, “It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” This is important to remember and may be the best way to shift your perspective. If we keep this thought, “It is the Lord Christ I am serving,” in the front of our minds then I think our perspective is bound to be more positive. If you went to work each day thinking about the fact that you are doing it for Christ, wouldn’t that help shift your perspective? If each interaction you had with everyone you first thought was I am doing this for Christ, don’t you think your interactions would go differently? Before you do anything ask yourself, “Is it Christ Jesus that I am serving?” After your do something ask yourself, “Did I serve Christ Jesus well?”

Dear Heavenly Father I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord I ask that you help us all to shift any negative perceptions that we have. I ask that you help us to remember that we are serving you Lord. Help us to be a good servant. Lord Jesus I ask you to shine a light on any negative stories we might be telling ourselves and I ask that you give us the wisdom to change the stories to ones that help us live in your light. Lord if we are struggling with work or family life or in any areas in our life I ask that you shine a light on what we need to change. Lord we ask you to lead us in those changes so we can become the people you want us to be. Lord we love you and we thank you for all that you do for us. We asked all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, amen.