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| Thank God it’s Monday! 18/8/2008 |
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It’s clearly not about the Monday morning blues, but it is the title of a book by Mark Greene, Director of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity. The thrust of his book is that Christianity really expresses itself on Monday when we go to work, not just on Sunday when we worship in church.
For many people, work has become a necessary evil to pay the bills and the real fun part of the week is the weekend. Some Christians think like that and even regard church or missionary work as special, making ‘secular work’ a kind of second best.
But this can’t be true. If we believe that God created us and the world around us, then our work becomes a major part of the purpose for which we exist. And in ‘work’ I include all the voluntary and unpaid activities of, for example, mothers and community volunteers. Of course, many people are denied work, and they find it difficult to be inactive. To create work for others is a very necessary and important matter.
I’ve been thinking about all this because in the next week or so thousands of teachers and young people head back to school. I’m not sure after a long summer that many of them find it a cause for rejoicing.
In the New Testament of the Bible, St Paul encourages Christians in these words: ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,’ and adds, ‘It is the Lord Christ you are serving’ (Colossians 3 v23-24).
For every Christian, their work, whether paid or unpaid, is their personal calling. And it is there that we form many of the relationships in our lives. So we can not only glorify God at work, but we can become a support and encouragement to others.
Churches exist to stimulate and strengthen faith and provide fellowship and inspiration and I hope our church does that. But the real work for Christians lies elsewhere.
So, once again, thank God it’s Monday, and also Tuesday through Friday!
Alastair Noble
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