The Mercy of Ordinary Work

There is work happening right now that no one will ever celebrate.

Meals being prepared that will be eaten and forgotten. Buildings being cleaned that will be dirty again tomorrow. Reports being written that very few people will read. Repairs being made that no one will notice unless they go wrong again. Gardens being tended in the early hours before anyone else is awake.

Ordinary work. Unspectacular work. Work that simply needs doing and that someone is getting on with doing.

Colossians 3:23 speaks directly into that space. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.

Not only the exciting work. Not only the visible work. Not only the work that earns praise or promotion or a moment of public recognition. Whatever you do. The full scope of daily labour, with all its repetition and ordinariness, is addressed here.

Work it heartily. As for the Lord.

This changes everything about how ordinary work looks.

If the audience for your work is ultimately the Lord and not a manager, a client or a passing observer, then the quality of the work is not determined by who is watching. It is determined by whom you serve.

This is not a motivational slogan. It is a theological reality. The Christian worker does not split life into sacred and secular, into meaningful work and meaningless work. All honest labour, done faithfully and given to the Lord, has dignity.

God Himself worked. He made the world with care and order. He saw that it was good. He did not make a rough sketch and leave the details for others. He worked carefully and completely.

The Lord Jesus, before His public ministry, spent years as a craftsman. He made things with His hands. He served customers. He did the work that was in front of Him, day after day, in a small town that history would never have noticed had He not lived there.

When a believer sweeps a floor, raises a child, writes an honest document, repairs something properly, teaches a class or does any work that needs doing, with integrity and care and as an offering to the Lord, that work is not beneath the gospel. It is shaped by it.

Ordinary work, done faithfully, is one of God's ordinary mercies. He gives us useful hands, skills to develop, tasks to complete and days in which to do them. The ability to work is a gift. The opportunity to do honest work is a grace.

Think about the work that is in front of you today.

Not the ideal work you wish you had. The actual work that is waiting.

Offer it to the Lord. Not in a grand ceremonial sense. Quietly, honestly. Say, in some form or another, that you are going to do this work for Him and not merely for the outcome.

Then do it with care.

The Lord sees work done in secret. He sees the effort no one applauds. He sees the faithfulness that no performance review measures. And He is the one whose assessment of your work is the one that finally matters.

Whatever you do, do it heartily, as for the Lord.