Work, work, work!

My devotion this morning from Pastor Rick Warren via YouVersion, was entitled: Your Work as Worship. This is a topic that got a hold of me a while back when Dave Ramsey was laying out his plan, The Great Recovery. In his speech, and I forget the exact quote, he said that God helps us out through jobs. This was something completely new for me to think about. I had never really looked at my job as a blessing. To be honest, before I came on full time at LifePoint, my job was just that. A job. Something to pay the bills. Looking at work as a blessing was an idea that took me a while to process.

There was a musical written and preformed while I was in college and one of the main songs was entitled "Work" (Probably because I attended Hard Work U. . . just guessing). The chorus included these lines: "Work, work work! We work all day! We work, work, work, for little pay." I've never once come across someone that said they were over compensated at their place of employment. Not one!

And it came back up this morning. In the devotion, Rick Warren says:

What I'm saying is that no matter what you do- sweeping the streets, running a corporation or the work of a stay-at-home mom-- your job is more than a job. The Bible says while you are here on earth, you should use your work as an act of worship. This means whatever you do, you are to do it with enthusiasm. If your heart is not in it, you are in the wrong job. 

The idea of your work as an act of worship, like I mentioned, was something that took me a while to process. (Quick plug for an awesome blog about worship here.) It's been something I've struggled with since Dave Ramsey punched me in the face with it. How do I worship God when I'm at work?

The answer to this question was evident to me on my lunch break today. I had to run to the store to pick up a few items. I grabbed those items and made my way to the checkout. Inevitably, my wife and I always pick the lane that takes for-evvvvvver. Today was no exception. As I was patiently waiting, I began to watch the cashier. Typically, cashier's will make small talk with the customer standing less than 3 feet in front of them (I'm sure after about 7 hours, you don't much care to hear about the weather. . .again). But what stood out to me was the lack of any communication by this cashier. Her body was present. She was "working". But her mind, and facial expressions were in a completely different place. In the 4-5 minutes I stood there waiting and checking out, I heard the cashier say exactly four sentences. 4!! And two of them were exactly the same! "Your total is $XX.XX" and "Thank you and have a nice day." Don't get me wrong I appreciate that she wished me a good rest of the afternoon, (I of course reciprocated the well wishes) but I don't feel she meant it. And to be completely honest, she may have been having a horrible day. Occasionally, we all get those.

My prayer is that everyone I come in contact with will be able to tell that I'm worshiping while I'm at work. For me, that looks a little different that it might for you. But my question to you is, how do YOU worship while you're at work?