On my last post, I concluded with a question: how do we live out Jesus’ instruction to pray this day for our daily bread? As I mentioned, Jesus’ instruction to pray for our daily bread completely transforms the reason for which we work. While God may use our work to provide for our daily needs, our reason for working is different. We work to expand God’s kingdom, according to what Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” Recently I was driving to work on a Monday morning and feeling blue, I pondered why I was feeling blue. If work was to be an opportunity to expand God’s kingdom, then why should I feel blue on a Monday morning or any workday morning for that matter? It occurred to me how far I still needed to go to change my own perspective of work. I realized that my view of work was still quite similar to that of the world. Back in the 1960’s a new restaurant started on the east coast, by the mid 1970’s it was also on the west coast. In college I worked at Sears, in the same shopping center where I worked this restaurant opened. It’s name? TGI Friday’s, meaning “Thank God it’s Friday”. That is an interesting name. Why wasn’t it called “TGI Monday’s”? Well, there is a good reason; probably no one would go to a restaurant with that name. Friday represents the last day of the traditional work week when people go out to eat and drink to celebrate the beginning of the weekend, when they don’t have to work. Monday is typically not a day of celebration. The celebration of the end of the work week has a very Old Testament view, related to man eating his bread by the sweat of his brow according to the curse on the land in Genesis 3. The TGI Friday mentality considers work to be burdensome, rather than invigorating, as Jesus transformed work to be. It occurred to me on that Monday morning driving to work, that the battle is not outside of me, but inside of me. This is why the apostle Paul instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds and not be conformed to this world. (Romans 12:1-2) What I need is to be transformed in my thinking each day that I go to work. I need to rethink the way I consider work, and not just how I think about it, but in how I feel about it; it is an opportunity, not a burden. So how do we live according to what Jesus taught? One aspect of that is to take stock of how we think about our work and how we live out each day. Are we living in the present, focusing on the needs of that day or are we letting cares for tomorrow enter in? Jesus instructs us to stay focused on each day, because it has enough for us to think about. When we reach that point we can live, TGI Today.
I invite you on this journey with me being transformed by the renewing of the mind.
David Freitag 