I Owe, I Owe

"Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve before kings; he will not serve before obscure men." - Proverbs 22:29 (NIV)

The word "work" conjures up many different pictures in people's minds. From the mundane and boring, to the exciting and challenging. But what kind of mental image does the word “work” conjure up for you?

If we think of work in a negative sense, we will find that more often than not, we will never work any harder than we need to in order to meet the minimum requirements. Our focus will be on the pay check at the end of the month, and we will work just hard enough to earn the money we need in order to buy something or go somewhere. We will see work as a necessary evil merely to be endured until we reach retirement age, and we will always try to get the most return for the least amount of effort.

If that is our opinion of work, we still have much growing to do.

The Bible presents work as a positive thing. Regardless of the pay, or whether there is any form of compensation at all, work is a good

thing all by itself. When we do our best at a job, whatever the job is, it does something good for us. But if we put in just enough effort to get by, we will never become the person God wants us to be.

But what about workaholics? They work too much, often neglecting their health and their families. Is this a good thing? No. One must remember there is a fine balance. It is not the amount of work that is important, it is the quality of work.

No matter what God calls us to do, we are to give it our best effort. We must never settle for mediocrity, and should establish excellence as our standard. We do not have to work all the time, but never settle for anything less than our absolute best. The Lord has called each of us to be excellent in what we do.

May we strive for excellence in all that we do for the Master of the universe.

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