Most of us spend more of our waking hours at work than anywhere else, including church. We tend to treat that as a problem to manage. What if it is a calling to steward?
The Marketplace is not a waiting room between Sundays. It is where neighbors are met, where trust is built one promise at a time, and where ordinary faithfulness becomes visible to people who would never walk into a local Church.
Before I ever worked a corporate job, I was a delivery driver for a local restaurant. Our tips depended on the size of the order and the effort we put into the service. As a college student scrounging for every dollar I could find for food and spending money, I made it my goal on every delivery to go above and beyond what the customer expected. Every dollar they spent on their meal deserved my best effort.
I carried that same mentality and work ethic into corporate America. I hit the ground running in my field, and I began to make a name for myself.
There is a word for this kind of effort, and it is easily mistaken for Kingdom service and stewardship: striving. I was striving as a corporate professional, going one step beyond anyone who dared to out-serve me. As honorable as that may sound, it eventually burned me out and left me with a gaping hole.
In The Heart of a Warrior, Michael Thompson writes that a beloved son has nothing to hide, nothing to fear, and nothing to prove. As we look at the life of our Rabbi, we see that Jesus made serving His trademark (Mark 10:45), yet He understood that His heart of service flowed from His relationship with the Father.
More than 2,000 years later, we have the same opportunity to live out Mark 10:45 in ways that honor our Father in Heaven. As beloved sons and daughters, we have nothing to hide, nothing to fear, and nothing to prove, because we serve from a true servant’s heart.
As you serve in the industry God has called you to, remember that excellence in serving comes from a secure heart posture, not from a search for the recognition of others. My friend, you are already freely loved by the One who made the cosmos. Walk in that love, and freely give it away.
Excellence is not the opposite of humility. It is one of its quietest forms.
Where this meets your week
Here is the good news for your Monday: God is not asking you to work less. He is asking you to work from a different place. Striving works to be seen, to be needed, to be enough. Stewardship works because you have already been seen, already been called, and already been given the grace to carry what is in front of you. The same effort looks completely different from there. So this week, don’t try to out-serve everyone in the room. Start small, start early, and start with the One you are really working for. The three practices below are not another to-do list. They are an invitation to work from rest instead of for it.
Questions to sit with
- Where does your work already put you in front of people who need care?
- What would change if you treated your desk, shop, or route as a place of ministry?
- Who could you invite into that conversation this week?
Lord, make my work a place where your kindness is felt before your name is spoken. Amen.
