Great Work

If we're going to do great work, it means that some people aren't going to like it. And if the people who don't like it don't have an impact on what happens to the work after it's complete, the only recourse of someone doing great work is to ignore their opinion. -Seth Godin

This quote points out something very important if we are going to do great things for God and the work that He has for us.  The fact of that matter is a lot of people didn't like Jesus.  Even when He was healing people and delivering them from their various afflictions, many of the religious leaders told Him that He shouldn't be healing because it didn't fit their schedule of not doing work on the sabbath.

If we are to do great work for God, we must come to the decision that it is His will and opinion of us that matters and no someone else's.  As the apostles asked whether they should obey "God or men", so we need to ask ourselves the same question. If you are striving to do a work for God and are receiving flak about it, or if you feel God leading you to do a work for Him and are concerned about what others may think, you only need to think of two things.  Is God telling you to do it?  Does it line up with the Bible?

When everything is said and done, we stand before God as our judge.  He is the one that has called us.  He is the one that empowers us.  He is the one that redeemed us for the work we are doing!

Are you watching or doing?

A while back, my middle daughter misbehaved and as her punishment she was not allowed to go outside and play with her older sister.  While the oldest girl went outside and played, she went and got her chair and sat next to the sliding glass doors that face our backyard and watched her older sister play outside.  From my wife's report, she watched with great delight, and was even excited about what was going on outside, even though she wasn't really participating.

Seems crazy, but that's what we do quite a lot.  We get really excited when we see someone else working hard and accomplishing great things for the Lord, even though we aren't.  I read  awhile back that we can get the same feelings of accomplishment simply watching someone else do something, even though we don't do it ourselves.  The worse part is, that it can actually decrease our motivation and desire to accomplish something because we already have that feeling of accomplishment.

This is called living vicariously.  It is the act of feeling as if you are experiencing or taking part in someone else's life.  I don't want to live this way.  To just celebrate what others are doing for God and never doing anything myself.  I hope that you don't either.  Let's make sure that we aren't just watching, but that we are doing!