God has me exactly where He wants me.
What do you do every day? How do you spend your time? Have you ever thought about your daily life as ministry?
“Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.”
Psalms 90:17 NASB
I work in corporate America, for a Fortune 100 company on its risk management team. Specifically, I oversee the purchase of the company’s insurance, the management of claims, and the gathering & distribution of analytics to various stakeholders within the organization. I know. Risk management, insurance, analytics… Sound pretty dry, doesn’t it? I get it. One of my favorite movie lines is from Planes, Trains & Automobiles when Steve Martin’s character says,
“I could tolerate any insurance seminar for days. I could sit there and listen to them go on and on with a big smile on my face. They’d say, ‘How can ya stand it?’ And I’d say, ‘Cause I’ve been with Del Griffith.'”1
Yep, that’s me. I geek out over this stuff. I look forward to those seminars, not only for the knowledge and insight I gain, but also for the relationships I have built over the years. I truly enjoy what I do for a living.
When I entered college way back in 1980, it was with the intent of entering the professional ministry. I was studying to become a pastor in the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS). My father worked for an insurance brokerage firm at that time, and I would work during summers and longer breaks in the firm’s mail room. After a while, my head was turned. I liked what I saw. I never enrolled in seminary.
God has blessed me with success in my career. Although traditional retirement age is approaching increasingly rapidly each year, I don’t know what I would do if I quit. I still have aspirations to grow my career and add even more value to the company I work for. Or perhaps someplace else. But, as satisfied as I am with my vocation, I have often asked the big question: “What if…” What if I had gone to seminary? What would my path have been in the LCMS? Would I even have made it? Did I ignore God’s call for the wrong reasons? A college friend told me, upon sharing my decision to forego seminary in favor of a business career, that I was abandoning God to go and serve the devil. Was he right? (Rest assured, I know now that he was so, so wrong).
I have wrestled with these questions over the years. And here is where I have landed:
God has me exactly where He wants me. God wants me in business. Not every ministry is carried out in a sanctuary, donned in clerical vestments, leading worship, preaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments. Oh, make no mistake, the ministry carried out in Christ’s Church is of vital importance. I am thankful to have many friends in professional ministry in the LCMS and other Christian denominations, even in the US military. I am thankful for the faithful pastors that have nurtured me in faith over the years. Ministry was never intended to be confined within the four walls of the church. Ministry is to occur in every facet of life in every corner of the world, and the church equips us to carry it out. Indeed, ministry is to be carried out in the business world. And that is what I seek to do.
“Confirm the work of my hands…” Did you know that our daily work is important to God? That He ordains it and sanctions it? That He uses you and me, no matter where we work, to further His kingdom? He does! This truth puts my daily work into an entirely different perspective! In a way, I am as much in ministry as my friends are who serve God in His Church. My ministry is manifested in my conduct, my attitude, my outlook and my quest to always deliver top-flight work. A coworker once asked me during a particularly difficult time at a prior employer how I “did it.” Door opened. I told him that my faith in God was seeing me through. God does open doors for us to share our faith. Even at work.
A couple years ago I was thinking about daily ministry. As I walked across the pedestrian bridge that connects the two buildings that are our corporate offices, the idea hit me: Launch a blog called workisministry.com. Share the Gospel. Offer encouragement and motivation. Share your faith and how it applies to your daily work. Let your light shine. Show Jesus to those with whom you work – and beyond. And, viola! This blog was born.
I have not been completely faithful in posting here. Over the past week or so, I have come to realize that this is an important aspect of my ministry. And so, today, I relaunch. I trust God to use this blog, and to use my life, as He sees fit according to His good and perfect will. I hope you find it helpful. If you do, I hope you will consider sharing it with your colleagues and friends.
As I nurture this blog, I will continue to strive to serve the Lord in all my endeavors. The Scripture below nicely summarizes my mission here:
Soli DEO Gloria!
(c) workisministry 2020
1Hughes, J. (Producer & Director). (1987). Planes, Trains and Automobiles [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures
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