I have a friend that works with medical records. Don’t worry, no sensitive data will be disclosed here, but I do have a sensitive encounter, a matter of the heart, to share. 

My friend had a patient ask her a question out of her scope and that question involved tracking  down a facility that his wife needed for a transfusion. My friend pulled together her resources and located the information for him and he was extremely thankful.

This tugged on my heart for several reasons, it reminded me that ministry and the workplace are not mutually exclusive. Ministry isn’t one facet of your life and then work another, instead they overlap, intersect daily and concurrently point to Jesus. 

My friend didn’t once mention Jesus’ name, but she ministered to him through God’s qualities of compassion, giving of time and willingness. 

This is our why.

If we wonder why or how we got placed into the jobs we have, could it be for the reason of ministry? To some degree we have a choice of where we work based on where we apply and our skills, but what about the people we encounter or the things that are asked of us? Remember our God is Sovereign over our lives and we need to be able to be plucked and placed where He needs us positioned. 

Consider Mark 6, the feeding of the five thousand. After ministering all day, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away [6:36]. A nice way of saying “that’s not our problem.” My friend could have done the same thing as the disciples, with all the requests she had to process and her own worklist to be completed, she could have sent that man on his way, but instead she had compassion on him [6:34].

I took the long route of getting to my point which is this: stop looking at work as “it’s happening to you” instead consider the bigger perspective of God and look for ways to serve [Colossians 3:23-24]. 

After all, Jesus came to serve and not be served.

See you next week!