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 (ESV)
Augustine, Confessions I.1:
You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.
C.H. Spurgeon, Motives for Steadfastness (1873):
We must disentangle ourselves from the idea of being rewarded here; we must be steadfast and unmoveable though nobody praises us, and abound in the work of the Lord though no fruit should come from it, because we have looked beyond this present realm of death, and have gazed into another world where the resurrection shall bring with it our reward.
The early church understood that labor is not a curse to be escaped but a calling to be consecrated. Paul wrote to men who worked with their hands -- tentmakers, dyers, laborers -- and told them their daily toil was priestly work when offered to Christ. The distinction between sacred and secular work is a later invention. For the first Christians, a man plowing a field in the name of the Lord was doing ministry as surely as one preaching from a pulpit. Chrysostom urged his congregation: "You are a priest of the inner temple -- sanctify your hands, sanctify your labor." Every task rendered unto Christ becomes an altar.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, II.12:
In the cross is salvation, in the cross is life, in the cross is protection from enemies, in the cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the cross is strength of mind, in the cross is joy of spirit, in the cross is highest virtue, in the cross is perfect holiness. There is no other way to life and to true inner peace, than the way of the cross and of daily self-denial.
What work did you do this week that you would have done differently if no one were watching -- and what does that difference reveal about whom you actually serve?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations V.1:
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world? Or have I been made for this, to lie in the bed-clothes and keep myself warm? -- But this is more pleasant. -- Dost thou exist then to take thy pleasure, and not at all for action or exertion? Dost thou not see the little plants, the little birds, the ants, the spiders, the bees working together to put in order their several parts of the universe? And art thou unwilling to do the work of a human being?
St. Clair, MI -- Saturday, July 18
Partly sunny with a high near 88°F, dropping to around 84 by afternoon. Thunderstorms likely between 11am and 5pm (80% chance), with rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter inch. West wind 8 to 15 mph, gusts to 24. Tonight: partly cloudy, low 61°F. North wind 3 to 13 mph. Patchy smoke possible after 1am.