When you work for Jesus, there are no menial tasks.

I received the following in an e-mail from the Navigators 20's ministry this morning.  While I have been blessed with a great job since being unemployed several months after grad school last year, it is a good reminder still of what we are called to - whether in a dream position at a prestigious firm, working our way to the top yet wondering our greater purpose, or still in anticipation of a big break - those of us who follow Christ must at our core be servants as He was.  I think this can relieve pressure and provide joy in pleasing the only One whose opinion truly matters.

Maybe you can relate. Finishing college, I considered myself God’s gift to the working world. But graduation came and went with no job offers. Despite my impressive GPA and numerous honors, two years and many job applications later, I remain underemployed. You know the questions I hear: “When are you going to find a real job?” “You went to college for this?” Adding to this external pressure, I face an internal sense of failure. Too often I respond to my circumstances by thinking, “I got a degree and exceptional grades for what? So I can clean treadmills and wash towels to pay off a useless degree?”

Recently, I sensed myself falling fast into this familiar pit of depression and self-pity. So I prayed, “Jesus, what do you want me to learn? How can I know you better in this suffering?” His response changes mine. If the Son of God came to serve in the most humbling ways, He understands—and calls me to follow. Jesus says no servant is greater than his master. Paul tells us we can know Christ better through sharing in His sufferings (Philippians 3, verses10 -11). My pain of broken dreams and over qualification lets me experience Jesus a little bit more. The humbling smallness I feel allows the world to see the bigness of Jesus because only as I rejoice in a big God can I find joy in my small circumstances. I can clean treadmills with a smile, my offering to Jesus. When you work for Jesus, there are no menial tasks.
- Allie, Navs20s

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward.  You are serving the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24.


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