EXTRAordinary
Stop
Where do you see God?
Take a moment and think about times and places in your life when you have sensed the presence of God. Is it always in church? Chances are it isn’t. Perhaps you see God in nature when you take the time to contemplate the vastness of creation.
Do you ever sense God’s presence at work?
Listen
Read Luke 5:1-11.
Reflect
Notice where Jesus meets Simon. He’s on the shore. Simon, James and John are cleaning their nets after a long night of fishing.
This is their workplace. Simon is a commercial fisherman. He is on this beach everyday, cleaning his fishing nets. He’s tired. The nets stink like seaweed and fish guts. It’s not glamorous or sophisticated. It’s just another day at the office.
Then Jesus shows up.
Jesus is a teacher who has been gaining quite a reputation. In fact, he even recently healed Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever.
Then Jesus challenges Simon to go back out into the water and fish some more, even when Simon knows the fish aren’t there today.
When Simon follow’s Jesus’ instructions the fish show up in a way that Simon has never seen. There are so many fish that Simon and his partners can barely get back to shore before the boats sink from the weight.
Do you see what happened?
Jesus showed up in an ordinary place—Simon’s workplace—and made it extraordinary.
Imagine the place where you work right now. It is very familiar. Perhaps it seems dull.
Did you know that Jesus is already there? What would happen if you began to see your workplace as a mission field for the Kingdom of God. How might that change the way you feel about work?
God loves your co-workers and the people whom you serve through the work that you do. Your work is as much a part of God’s mission to bring healing and wholeness to all things as the work of a pastor or missionary.
Pray
Let us pray that God will take your ordinary things and make them extraordinary.
Amen.
Carry On
You work on holy ground, if you allow it to be that.
As you go to work today, let us pray that you will see Jesus there.