Obligation vs. Participation: Work
The prompt for this week is the word "Work."
3, 2, 1... Ready? Go.
//The word "work" often has a really negative connotation. It is something we have to do. We have to go to make money; we have to deal with the stress and the co-workers and the stuff that work throws at us.
Work is often obligation over participation. I have to do this, so I will over I was invited to do this, so I will.
I went to the Wesley Center on my campus last night and this is precisely what we were talking about: participation and obligation.
We were talking about our own creation story, in Genesis. God created Adam, and then called Adam into active participation or co-creation with Him. I knew this, of course, I just hadn't really thought of it that way before. God called Adam into co-creation and active participation with Himself.
He created the heavens and earth and everything in it, then created Adam. After creating Adam, God invites Adam to name all the animals. In this moment, Adam becomes a co-creator and a co-dreamer with his Creator.
Now obviously we aren't Adam and Eve, but I think this is an important concept: God is still calling us to actively participate and co-create in shaping our world with Him.
God is either going to do it with us, or in spite of us: why don't we just go ahead and jump into what He's doing?
I think it's interesting, especially in the church today, we often feel obligated to do things. We think things like: I'm going to be a better person if I do this. God is going to be happier with me if I do this certain thing.
It is obligation over participation, when in reality, I think it should be reversed. God has given you and placed the passions on your heart that you have for a reason: they are how you connect and how you serve the world and the people around you.//
I think one of the most beautiful gifts that God gave us as a people, beyond free will, is creativity. He is always engineering situations to bring His people back to Himself!
He is always working. There's that word again. Work. Working.
He invites us to work with Him. He is calling us into active participation: to show others what real love looks like and to emulate His nature to a hurting world around us.
It's so easy to fall into the trap of viewing our relationship with God as an obligation. I have to do this. He'll love me more if I do.
Can I just tell you something?
From Graham Cooke's The Inheritance: He won't love you any better when you become better. He loves you 100% right now. And even if you have no plans to become better, He will still love you 100%, because He loves you, because that's the way He is.
Resting in God is just as important as working with Him. Take time to re-focus and just be.
Remember that His love for you is not based on what you do. Rather, it's an invitation: an invitation from fear into freedom. An invitation to shift your perspective. An invitation into active participation.
May you see Him at work in your own life and in the world around you.
This post is part of Kate Motaung's Five Minute Friday Link-Up. Each Friday, there is a single word prompt and we are encouraged to write for 5 minutes. You can read more about it here!
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