Whistle While You Work

Don't get me wrong, having your single and only job each day be to watch hours of television and sit in a recliner and eat snacks isn't a bad life. It's what most of us wish for as we sit at a desk or in an office, as we work with employees or customers. We dread the daily grind. The early mornings, the rules, the uniform, the late nights. But let me tell ya, the coach potato life isn't all it's cracked up to be. (Ya sure, maybe for a solid 48 hours or so, but then after that...it's just pathetic! Plus you start to smell and then no one wants to be around you!)

I got into Baton Rouge on November 6th...and I am still here! (and will be here til December 1st.) It has been so good to be in one place for longer than a minute; to do laundry, take a shower, have a bit of a routine, get familiar with the city. BUT, there are 12 hours in a day and let me tell you, 12 is a lot of hours to fill when you don't have a job or project.  I can only read, write and run so much before..well before I can't anymore.

One of my favorite excerpts from Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers says this:
"We are not meant to be illuminated versions, but the common stuff of ordinary life exhibiting the marvel of the grace of God."

If you're a dreamer like I am, this is a hard notion for you. But I have to admit, I think he's got somethin here. And I  can't help but think that a lot of how we accomplish this is through work. My dad and I have had a few conversations about this topic. I can't remember the context in which it first came up, but I know it was in a letter he had written me while I was away in Mississippi for school. He wrote something that will never escape me: "work is redeeming."

My dad is always challenging me with great questions (you know, the hard ones with no 'right' answer, that make you lay awake at night) A few months back he asked if I thought God cared about what we do (as in career or job)  I said "NO" almost without thinking; not because I had thought about the questions before and felt I had a concrete or satisfactory answer, but because my spirit spoke for me. I worked to string together my thoughts...and those words flashed through my memory 'work is redeeming.' If this is true (which I happen to believe it is) then I don't think God cares what we do, but I think God cares that we care what we do... I think that if  I felt passionate about flipping burgers for the rest of my life (not that there is anything wrong with flipping burgers) then he wouldn't care if that's what I did.

(This will sound a little christian-ese...but it's the filter through which I process, so bear with me) If work and toil and sweat is what God mandated after the fall of man, then I have to believe that's part of the equation. I believe that work..the doldrums, the exhaustion...it is our way of making things right. And it's not individualistic...it's not: I screwed up and the consequence is toil. It's: we're all really freakin messed up and by working we entertain the idea and spirit of something bigger.

Basically here's the conclusion I've come to: I'm not going crazy doing nothing because I'm simply bored, Although I believe that has something to do with it (when you're getting through seasons of shows in a matter of days, it's never a good sign). But I believe it's hard for me to not be working or devoting myself to a task because that is one of the ways we are able to work things out with God, it is the beginning of redemption. the small sparks of me saying, 'I'm not the center of the world.'

It always makes more sense in my head...but it's my theory and I'm stickin to it (for now).
The hard part will be to remind myself of this when I'm back home, sitting in a desk, ripping out my hair!