We’re looking this week at Psalm 127: Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour in vain.

How do we know if we’re working for God or not? How do we know if we are building with him, rather than for ourselves?

We need to know what God is working on. His big story, and where we fit into it.

Bible tells a story with four parts:
1. God created and cared for a good world, where we’d be in close personal relationship with him. IN harmony with world around us, providing needs, us working to sustain it. Were only asked to work with him, and not to try and be him.
2. We found ourselves longing to know what God knew, and rebelled against God in favour of working for ourselves. We separated ourselves from God, and now everything, including our work, is dysfunctional. Even our attempts to get back to God are broken.
3. God hasn’t given up on us, and in fact, became one of us in Jesus Christ in order to close that separation between us, and resolve the dysfunction.
4. He’s inviting us to join with him in recreating that original way of life, us and God in close personal relationship in harmony with our world, in something called his kingdom, moving towards a day when that is the only reality.

Good work is about participating in God’s ongoing creativity and cultivation…working for him, instead of putting our own goals first.

I had a friend studying Environmental Science. He was learning this kind of worldview (simplified to save space, but this was the gist): We are animals, wildly out of control like a virus, destroying the rest of nature, and the solution is to drive a hybrid, recyle, use less energy, the list goes on.

One day, he was finally crushed by the responsibility laid upon him, and said he felt he needed to change degrees. I asked why, and he said it was because I was a better recycler than he was! He felt he needed to save the world, and couldn’t…in fact I seemed to be doing better at it, and it wasn’t even my job or area of study.

The difference between us was that my environmentalism came from knowing and believing that God created, loves this world, and I should too. In fact, he put humans here to care for it, not as a virus. Of course, the dysfunction brought into our world by our rebellion against God (sin) is obvious in our many environmental issues – global warming, pollution, deforestation, etc. I can’t save it myself, but I know the one who can and is – God. I have a job to do, but also know it’s not in vain or overwhelming and futile, because I’m working for and with God.

We’ll see tomorrow some examples of how this good news story impacts other areas of work.

Question: Think about the example of a contractor – how would a home builder build in a consistent way with God’s story?

Then, watch the attached video of Kimberly’s story.

Ryan Sim - September 10, 2015

Thursday - Act On It - Structured Rest

I used to be really good at resting. I rock climbed, mountain biked, went running. I went to movies, read books, relaxed at home. Then I got a job! It became a lot harder when I was no longer a student. Add to that that pressures of family life - marriage and children - and it's even harder to rest at all, much less daily, weekly, yearly and beyond. So how do you carve that out and protect it? We asked Jerry, a friend of RTC and a business owner, how he does it. Be sure to catch his interview on video or audio. For Jerry, maintaining daily, weekly and less frequent rhythms of rest is a witness to others - they know when your store is closed, and it says something about the values of the family behind the business. It also teaches his family what's important to him and his wife. They are not just about money, there is much more to their life. Challenge: Find at least four other people in your line of work, and ask them how they handle their need for rest, leisure and restoration. Ask them how that looks on a weekly basis, and throughout the year. Then ask them to keep you accountable.

From Series: "Work and Rest"

Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.

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