because we weren't called to be bare minimum people...
Bare minimum. It's easy to do. And it's not like we aren't all being pulled into a million different directions, right? It's not like we aren't all busy and stretched thin. And so putting forth our full effort doesn't sound appealing. It sounds time consuming. It sounds difficult. Most of all, it sounds tiring. Why do more than the bare minimum when you can do enough to simply skate by?
God doesn't call us to be bare minimum people in anything we do. Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord...". Whatever. Anything you do, anything you're associated with, anything you've committed yourself to, work at it with all your heart. Notice it didn't say, "Whatever you do, do just enough to get by....". And yet sometimes it seems that so much is being asked of us. We don't have the energy, the time, the stamina, or even the desire to put ALL of our heart into it. Some will have to work. Some will have to do. Because there's not enough to go around, we think. But what if we really put all of our heart into everything we did? What if we didn't settle for the bare minimum? What if, in everything we did, we put forth our best effort no matter what it would require of us? We'd probably come to see that the bare minimum was costing us more than we realized.
One of my co-workers brought a delicious, homemade peach pie to work today. That's right, homemade. In this day and age, eating anything truly homemade is a rarity. Earlier in the week, she commented on how she'd been collecting peaches from her peach tree. She said she's make us a pie, and you better believe that when you commit to a group of sugar-loving women that you'll bring a pie, you absolutely have to bring a pie. I had eaten a few peaches from my grandmother's tree earlier in the week, and they were so tiny. Delicious, but tiny. I wondered if the peaches in the pie were the same size as the ones I had eaten. If so, I couldn't image how long it must have taken her to peel and slice enough for a whole pie. As we sank our teeth into one delicious bite after another, and I asked her how many peaches she had used and she said, "I lost count. The softest peaches were small, so I ended up peeling a lot in order to have enough for the pie." And I thought about how my co-workers would have been out of luck had the pie making been up to me.
See, if it was me, I would have bought a frozen crust, a bag of frozen peaches, and thrown it in the over. Better yet, I probably would just grabbed a frozen pie from the freezer section at the store and baked it for them. Sure, it would have been okay. They probably would have eaten it and kindly thanked me for bringing it. It would have been good enough, but it would have paled in comparison to the homemade pie we ate with fresh peaches. It wouldn't have even come close to tasting as good. And the truth is, we so often do this in life. Why take the long way when we can take the short cut? Why do more when it's easier to do less? Why push ourselves to do the work when someone else can do it instead?
But God calls us to work, to serve, in every way with our whole hearts. It may not mean homemade pies, but maybe it means continuing to serve your family when you're exhausted. Maybe it means giving more of yourself at work when you don't necessarily want to. Maybe it means being more involved with your children when other things are calling your name. You put your all into it, whatever it is, because you realize that God will not only bless your efforts, but He will use them. Half-hearted efforts don't go near as far, and when we only give God some, it doesn't give Him much to use. Yet when we give Him our all, we receive. We receive blessings, we receive His mercies, and we receive His help. We will reap what we sow, and so it only makes sense that we would always sow our best.
"Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do..." - Ephesians 6:7-8
God doesn't call us to be bare minimum people in anything we do. Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord...". Whatever. Anything you do, anything you're associated with, anything you've committed yourself to, work at it with all your heart. Notice it didn't say, "Whatever you do, do just enough to get by....". And yet sometimes it seems that so much is being asked of us. We don't have the energy, the time, the stamina, or even the desire to put ALL of our heart into it. Some will have to work. Some will have to do. Because there's not enough to go around, we think. But what if we really put all of our heart into everything we did? What if we didn't settle for the bare minimum? What if, in everything we did, we put forth our best effort no matter what it would require of us? We'd probably come to see that the bare minimum was costing us more than we realized.
One of my co-workers brought a delicious, homemade peach pie to work today. That's right, homemade. In this day and age, eating anything truly homemade is a rarity. Earlier in the week, she commented on how she'd been collecting peaches from her peach tree. She said she's make us a pie, and you better believe that when you commit to a group of sugar-loving women that you'll bring a pie, you absolutely have to bring a pie. I had eaten a few peaches from my grandmother's tree earlier in the week, and they were so tiny. Delicious, but tiny. I wondered if the peaches in the pie were the same size as the ones I had eaten. If so, I couldn't image how long it must have taken her to peel and slice enough for a whole pie. As we sank our teeth into one delicious bite after another, and I asked her how many peaches she had used and she said, "I lost count. The softest peaches were small, so I ended up peeling a lot in order to have enough for the pie." And I thought about how my co-workers would have been out of luck had the pie making been up to me.
See, if it was me, I would have bought a frozen crust, a bag of frozen peaches, and thrown it in the over. Better yet, I probably would just grabbed a frozen pie from the freezer section at the store and baked it for them. Sure, it would have been okay. They probably would have eaten it and kindly thanked me for bringing it. It would have been good enough, but it would have paled in comparison to the homemade pie we ate with fresh peaches. It wouldn't have even come close to tasting as good. And the truth is, we so often do this in life. Why take the long way when we can take the short cut? Why do more when it's easier to do less? Why push ourselves to do the work when someone else can do it instead?
But God calls us to work, to serve, in every way with our whole hearts. It may not mean homemade pies, but maybe it means continuing to serve your family when you're exhausted. Maybe it means giving more of yourself at work when you don't necessarily want to. Maybe it means being more involved with your children when other things are calling your name. You put your all into it, whatever it is, because you realize that God will not only bless your efforts, but He will use them. Half-hearted efforts don't go near as far, and when we only give God some, it doesn't give Him much to use. Yet when we give Him our all, we receive. We receive blessings, we receive His mercies, and we receive His help. We will reap what we sow, and so it only makes sense that we would always sow our best.
"Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will reward each one of us for the good we do..." - Ephesians 6:7-8
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