by Jon
“Six days you shall work.” – Exodus 34:21
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’” – Exodus 8:1
“But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” – Joshua 24:15
As part of preparations for future missions, I have taken unpaid leave from serving as a pastoral staff to take a 6-month course on Agricultural Technology Operations. Transiting once again back to a student, I have started to reflect on the 2+ years of work at my home church.
When I started work at my home church, I would introduce myself as being in “full-time service”. Prior to that, I carve out time from my regular job to serve as a volunteer in church. However, working in church gave me the opportunity to combine both work and service into one whole. While this was a great blessing, I also felt an unseen tension arising. I hear statements such as “Work is worship”, “Serving God is worship” and the mother of all statements – “Everything we do is worship”. While understanding and agreeing with these claims, they only added to the internal tension.
“Work”, “Service” and “Worship” seemed like 3 weights that I had to keep in balance; 3 balls that I had to juggle so that none dropped. However, during one of the Business for Transformation courses that I am attending, this tension was addressed when we talked about Avodah.
Avodah is a Hebrew word found throughout the Old Testament and is often translated as “work”, “worship” or “serve” in different verses. As we dug deeper into Avodah in the course, I discovered that while language can create distinctions in our minds, language also has the power to bring seemingly separate ideas together.
Unlike what is translated in the Bible, ancient Hebrews did not understand Avodah to mean either work, worship or service. What they understood is that work, worship and service were all combined and encompassed in the word Avodah.
So while most of us compartmentalize and understand work as something we do from Monday to Friday; worship as the short time of singing and music before the sermon; and service as volunteer work we do for the church, meditating on Avodah made me realize that God has meant for work, worship and service to be one and the same.
And chewing on this idea, the implications are mind-blowing.
If we embrace Avodah, it means that there is no such an occupation which is of a “higher calling” because just as all our worship is valued by God, any job that God has called you to – whether a banker, teacher, scientist, food seller or cleaner – is God’s highest calling for you. This means that there is no distinction between “secular” and “spiritual” work.
If we embrace Avodah, it means that “full-time service” is a misnomer because if all work dedicated to God is service to God, all of us who have jobs and do them to the very best of our God-given ability is full-time service to God.
If we embrace Avodah, then it means that God is looking at that email that you are sending to that demanding customer, unreasonable boss or uncooperative colleague. It means that the effort that you put in filing, writing reports and even menial documentation is a reflection of our worship to God. It means that producing the highest quality of work is our expression of highest worship to God.
If we embrace Avodah, this means that the skill and knowledge we gain as part of work and the fruits of our labor are not in vain and dependent on the whim of man, but all of them are valuable to God. It means that seminary studies are just as valid as an MBA course or a plumbing course in furthering God’s kingdom purposes.
While I am still grasping the full implications of Avodah, I am blessed by how God is showing His sovereignty over all things and is intrinsic in everything we do. I hope that this will bless you as much as it has blessed me!
“All vocations are intended by God to manifest His love in the world.” – Thomas Merton
Jon and Phoebe's thetomyumkongs journey. 