Work is Worship

Yesterday I was racing through the bedlam of an Indian market with my friend Punit and a few of his cousins. In the midst of the crazy tumult of traffic, Punit pointed out a delivery truck that had pink writing in Hindi on its bumper. He explained that all such trucks carried this inscription meaning "Work is Worship". It was a way of thinking that these workers had adopted because they worked long hours for very little pay. So they chose to see something sacred in their daily grind - an attempt to rise above their circumstances by offering their work as worship.

As Christians, worship is something that we often seem to relegate to a two hour weekly timeslot at a church building. We can have trouble connecting our everyday tasks and jobs to something as sacred as worship to God. Intellectually I can understand the concept that worship is a lifestyle and encompasses all that I do in my life. But putting it into practice isn't as easy. Because we live in a very compartmentalized society it can be difficult to avoid artificial divisions between secular and sacred actviity. If the sacred does somehow break in to my daily routine it is still limited to moments when I see or feel God moving in my day. But this is not a limit that God places on worship.

In Psalm 96:11-12 it says, "Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad. Let the sea resound and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant and everything in them. Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy." Now, understandably this is poetry and something of a metaphor, but I also think that there is a truth here. All of creation is called to worship its Maker. Yet how do fields and forests worship God? I believe they worship by being a field, by being a tree.- by being what they were created to be.

However, fields and trees do not choose who they worship but we must. As someone recently put it to me, "We are not so much born to worship as we are born worshipping. We are always worshipping but we have to choose whom to worship." From birth we are faced with the continual choice: Will we worship self, sin or any other false gods? Or will we surrender our lives to our Creator, thus fulfilling what we were created for and making our lives an act of worship to God? When we live in this surrender, resting in who God has created us to be, worship flows effortlessly from our being. Then all the areas of our life become worship - from church to work to our home life - everything. And we can take the workers' motto even a step further saying, "Work is worship. Life is worship! To God be all of my worship."

Ben Gumienny is always looking for ways to improve the mediums and methods of communication so that more people can be reached. Currently he is on a trip in India attending two weddings along with his wife.

Add more “C” to Community

1. Contact – put your-self in a position to contact people…chamber, service clubs etc. Involvement in community automatically puts you in a position to make contacts.

2. Connection – You want to make a connection it is impossible to get to know everyone so mingle until you make a connection with someone. There are different levels of connection…interest based, heart based, people based, industry based.

3. Collaboration – Once a connection is established find common points that would mutually benefit both parties. The sharing of resources, ideas and problem solving etc can also be powerful ways to benefit each other.

4. Care – People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Authenticity is important to a lasting relationship. To many people are in it for themselves and break relationship when they are not getting what they want from it.

5. Challenge – The opportunity for skill development. Steel sharpens steel so we grow when someone has the freedom to challenge us. This can go beyond professional into personal lives as the relationship grows.

6. Coaching – Create accountability for achieving goals. Be the solution you want to see. Challenge without help is judgment.

Mark is a "coach" himself - helping coach people in their lives with grass roots wisdom and uncanny depth in his counsel. He will be cheering his Lions on in the CFL playoffs starting this weekend.

Less is More

1 Timothy 6:6 says “Godliness is actually of great gain WHEN accompanied by contentment”

Contentment it seems has left our society and do I dare say the church…we tend to spend more time looking at what we don’t have rather then being grateful for what we do have. The message the world gives is you need “more” to be happy but “more” never ends; it is a bottomless pit of striving and hope deferred. Even in the good things we desire to do we can move into discontentment. I love to dream and have so much vision that it is overwhelming at times. I must confess I spend too much energy and time dreaming of what could be “if only” we had money. I sometimes think “What if I actually spent that time actually working on the vision or praying into it and waiting on the Lord to release it.”

The fact is that God gives us everything we need to live out HIS plans for our lives. Everything is from HIM for HIM. So tonight I began looking at what HE has done in our lives and ministry and thanking HIM and I was blown away with how much HE has done with very little. I pondered what if someone had handed us a money order for a million dollars - would we have even stopped to say thank you? Would we have built a shrine to our great leadership? Or worse, would we have missed the Lord of the work for the sake of the work of the Lord?!? Less Is More in so many ways - less wishing - more believing…less complaining - more thanking…less taking - more giving…less me - more GOD…you get the idea! In verse 7 it goes on to say we came into the world with nothing and we can take nothing out of it either.

So here is my confession…I am content with whatever JESUS has for me! Less or More it is all yours JESUS!

Mark Gordon excels at encouraging and releasing others into greater freedom and destiny in their lives. Mark is a homebody who can be found sitting on his deck relaxing throughout Kelowna's great summers.