I have to wash the dishes this morning. Last night we ate fresh bread with butter, roasted chicken and vegetables, and after dinner there was some snacking that included swiss cheese, spicy pepper jelly, and somehow, even freshly baked cookies were made and consumed. All of this normal-evening-at-home revelry makes a mess. There are so many little water cups in my sink. The roasting pan might not even be soaking yet. And I wash dishes by hand, so I\u2019m going to have to really get in there and get the job done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I feel like I\u2019d rather do something else this morning. I feel like I\u2019m called to read my book about walnut trees and drink coffee. Once I\u2019ve had my coffee, I feel like I\u2019m actually called to write my own book about trees (<\/em>Oh my goodness, can you believe how the walnut flowers form in the spring!). But really, what I\u2019m actually called to right now is to wash those dishes. So if I\u2019m longing for a higher calling than that, then I should aim to wash those dishes cheerfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now there\u2019s a high calling: do the work that is set before you, no matter what it may be, with a cheerful heart. Paul wasn\u2019t joking when he wrote, \u201cWhatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord\u201d (Colossians 3:23). In other words, we are to do even our most mundane tasks for the Lord. Martin Luther King Jr. famously and beautifully said, \u201cIf a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, \u2018Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are called to cheerfully work as unto the Lord, even if we are dealing with drudgery or severe oppression from every standpoint. In this, we experience the highest and most difficult human act, that of humility in all our work and relationships. We also learn how to love the Lord with our entire being\u2014heart, soul, and strength\u2014submitting our will to His in all circumstances (Deuteronomy 6:4\u20135).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? Our reward isn\u2019t the applause of men or the accumulation of riches (even from the hypothetical publication of a thrilling tome on walnut leaves). Our reward and inheritance is from the Lord. We serve Christ, and what an honor that is to serve the one who knelt and washed the filthy feet of His slow-to-listen, little-in-faith, betraying disciples (John 13:1\u201317). We are to serve in the same way He bore the cross for us. His humility is our example. He teaches us by example. May we learn \u201cto act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with [our] God\u201d (Micah 6:8).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have to wash the dishes this morning. Last night we ate fresh bread with butter, roasted chicken and vegetables, and after dinner there was some snacking that included swiss cheese, spicy pepper jelly, and somehow, even freshly baked cookies were made and consumed. All of this normal-evening-at-home revelry makes a mess. There are so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":71282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philippiansandcolossians"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"related_plans":[71272],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"CHRISTIAN LIVING<\/b> I have to wash the dishes this morning. Last night we ate fresh bread with butter, roasted chicken and vegetables, and after dinner there was some snacking that included swiss cheese, spicy pepper jelly, and somehow, even freshly baked cookies were made and consumed. All of this normal-evening-at-home revelry makes a mess. There are so many little water cups in my sink. The roasting pan might not even be soaking yet. And I wash dishes by hand, so I\u2019m going to have to really get in there and get the job done.<\/p> But I feel like I\u2019d rather do something else this morning. I feel like I\u2019m called to read my book about walnut trees and drink coffee. Once I\u2019ve had my coffee, I feel like I\u2019m actually called to write my own book about trees (Oh my goodness, can you believe how the walnut flowers form in the spring!). But really, what I\u2019m actually called to right now is to wash those dishes. So if I\u2019m longing for a higher calling than that, then I should aim to wash those dishes cheerfully.<\/p> Now there\u2019s a high calling: do the work that is set before you, no matter what it may be, with a cheerful heart. Paul wasn\u2019t joking when he wrote, \u201cWhatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord\u201d (Colossians 3:23). In other words, we are to do even our most mundane tasks for the Lord. Martin Luther King Jr. famously and beautifully said, \u201cIf a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, \u2018Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.\u2019\u201d<\/p> We are called to cheerfully work as unto the Lord, even if we are dealing with drudgery or severe oppression from every standpoint. In this, we experience the highest and most difficult human act, that of humility in all our work and relationships. We also learn how to love the Lord with our entire being\u2014heart, soul, and strength\u2014submitting our will to His in all circumstances (Deuteronomy 6:4\u20135).<\/p> Why? Our reward isn\u2019t the applause of men or the accumulation of riches (even from the hypothetical publication of a thrilling tome on walnut leaves). Our reward and inheritance is from the Lord. We serve Christ, and what an honor that is to serve the one who knelt and washed the filthy feet of His slow-to-listen, little-in-faith, betraying disciples (John 13:1\u201317). We are to serve in the same way He bore the cross for us. His humility is our example. He teaches us by example. May we learn \u201cto act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with [our] God\u201d (Micah 6:8).<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"23","scripture":"Colossians 3:18-25, Colossians 4:1, Deuteronomy 6:4-5, Matthew 22:36-40, Ephesians 5:22\u201323, Ephesians 6:1-9","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Rebecca Faires<\/i>
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