EVERYTHING you do...

Last week I took an adventurous step in my adult life and got a second part-time job at a coffee shop in town. I was so nervous the two days leading up to my first day of work. As I strolled up and down target's aisles in my efforts to cope through retail therapy, I realized something about myself....I hardly ever get nervous. I tried remembering the last time someone or something made me nervous and I only came up with two instances. The first being when I moved to South Africa when I was 18. And the second being anytime I go into an audition. I was venturing into the unknown territory of the coffee/restaurant business and it terrified me!Luckily for me, the people who were training me and working with me were amazing. I walked out of my first week feeling accomplished with a sense of, "I can do this" in my mind.

As I drove myself to work one morning at 5:00 am, I realized just how blessed I was to have this job in today's economy. I know of so many fathers and mothers who have a degree and years of experience in their back pocket and still cannot find a job anywhere. And here I am, a 21 year old with no formal college education and only the years of ballet training in my back pocket and I have not one job, but two. I couldn't help but thank God over and over again for providing for this for me. I was overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude and a feeling that I needed to give back. But how do I go about repaying God for blessing me? I can only say "Thank You" so many times and since everything already belongs to Him, what do you give?

Today He showed me.

"In all the work you are doing, work the best you can. Work as if you are doing it for the Lord, not for people." Colossians 3:23

It doesn't matter if you are the president of a company or the girl who answers phones downstairs. It doesn't matter if you are the pastor of a church or the one who cleans it on monday. It doesn't matter if you own your own business or work for the guy who does. It doesn't matter what your position in life is, God requires us to be excellent in all things as if we were doing it for him. So today as you answer the phone, make copies, take out the trash, wash dishes, or wait on tables...do it for the Lord and be excellent in it.

"Whoever wants to be great among you must first serve the rest of you like a servant. Whoever wants to be first among you must serve the rest of you like a slave." Matthew 20:26

The Lord works wonders through the ordinary people. He loves to use the underdogs and the ones who were least expected. When Joseph was sold into slavery and went to work in Potiphar's house, the Lord was with him. This made everything he did excellent and successful. When Potiphar realized this, he elevated Joseph from janitor to being completely in charge of everything he owned. The Bible says that when this happened, the people of Potiphar's house were blessed, and everything he owned both in the house and of the field were also blessed.He could've done as we might have had we been in his shoes. He could've felt sorry for himself. He could've cried over the fact that he had lost everything and went from being his father's favorite son to now being a slave. But he didn't.

Because of this, God rewarded and blessed Joseph.

When Joseph was wrongly accused and thrown into prison for many years, the Lord was still with him. He was soon elevated within the prison and given the responsibility of the prisoners and everything that happened in the prison. This he did it with excellence. The same excellence as when he was in charge of Potiphar's house. His standard did not change with his position, he served with the same hard working heart in both jobs.

Because of this, God rewarded and blessed Joseph.

The story continues with Joseph being elevated from prison keeper to keeper of Egypt and saving the nation from famine. Now I wonder, had he complained about his status, felt sorry for himself, or became bitter from all the unjust things that had happened to him, would God have been able to use him like He did? Probably not.

"I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." Philippians 4:10-12

In order for any of us to be used for great things in God's Kingdom, we must first, be willing to humble ourselves in whatever position we find ourselves in. In that position, we must find contentment knowing our lives are being guided by Christ and are part of a bigger picture. From there, we become excellent. We go above and beyond our job description. We do a little extra to help those around us succeed. And through our example, we encourage others to do the same.

"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body." I Corinthians 12:12-20