Hello, My Dear Friends,
Many years ago, there was a story about a group of natives who wanted to honor the medical missionary who had settled among them. The doctor had given most of his life to serving people in primitive lands. The people were asked to bring gifts. One man had traveled considerable miles to attend the celebration. When he arrived, he presented the doctor with a small wooden bowl his family had carved. The other people who lived nearby had given the doctor far more expensive gifts. But the man was not embarrassed. As he presented the bowl to the doctor, he said with great satisfaction: “My long walk is part of the gift.”
The man was right. His life, if not invested in the gift, was invested in the walk — and in that he found a sense of well-being. That’s often one of the results of one’s labors.
Part of the important business of life is to find ways to give our life meaning. Sometimes this can be accomplished by discovering how our work can fit into the total scheme of things. In the New Testament, there is a story about a man named Barnabas. Barnabas was an associate of one of the giants of human history, the apostle Paul. Barnabas traveled with Paul, but Paul was so talented that Barnabas often had little to do. One day, however, Barnabas found in their traveling party a young man named John Mark. Mark was erratic and undependable. But Barnabas worked with Mark, and as a result Mark eventually became one of the indispensable citizens of the ancient world and the author of the Gospel of Mark in our New Testament.
It has been rightly said that if your life is worthwhile, it is not because you found it that way, it is because you made it that way. Not many of us find jobs that shape history. However, all of us can find vocations that we can make count for something, if we work at them. There are always opportunities to make contributions and thereby find great satisfaction.
The real question of life is not how to find a job that counts, but rather how to make the job you have count.
It’s often work that gives meaning to our lives,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
