And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17 (NLT)
I own a business. There are many days I wonder why. Especially on days that I am supposed to be on “vacation” but I am working. My husband has the same problem. His family has owned their own business for years and you are never really and truly not on the clock. It is something that is understood. When something happens, you step up.
I was thinking about this over the holidays when I didn’t get to “have my vacation” because things kept happening. Over the years I’ve heard a lot of Christians say this too (me included.) I’m on vacation or it’s my day off so I can’t ______________ (fill in the blank.)
Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with resting and I definitely think I should do more of it (in a constructive way - which is another post.) But, I think we do a disservice to God when we try to compartmentalize what he is calling us to do. You see, what he’s calling us to do is love one another. He is calling us to take care of each other. When we try to say “I can’t go help that person” or “I’m on vacation today so I’m not going to reach out,.” it seems like we are trying to put our number one role in life on a schedule.
I am reading the book Everybody Always by Bob Goff (great book by the way) and he says this:
"We don’t need to call everything we do “ministry” anymore either. Just call it Tuesday. That’s what people who are becoming love do."
I love that line. What would happen if we did everything we are supposed to do with the idea that this is our business? Our business is to love God and each other before ourselves. What if we owned that like we own the other things in our lives? What if we stopped distinguishing between what our “jobs” are and what our life is supposed to be? What if we lived love in everything we do? Even when we are on vacation…..
I think maybe the world would look really, really different.