Work ≠ Identity

Today is Wednesday (but feels like Friday), November 22, 2017. Day 21,804.

One more day until Thanksgiving!

Terry Guilliam, who was born on this date in 1940, said, “We took up the offer with the BBC, and that was Monty Python’s Flying Circus. I didn’t have to submit my ideas to the group. I used to turn up on the days we recorded with a can of film under my arm, and in it went.”
BrainyQuote

The word of the day, from Dictionary.com, is bakemeat, a noun, meaning, “pastry; pie.” Also, “cooked food, especially a meat pie.”

Today is Go For A Ride Day. This isn’t about exercise, although going for a ride on a bicycle is perfectly acceptable. It’s about getting away and just riding, driving, or whatever. Just go. It would be better if this weren’t occurring on a work day.

Not much going on around here. C continues to recover while working from home. Mobility continues to get better. She doesn’t even use the cane, now, to walk around, and she made dinner last night, for us.

As noted above, tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the U.S. We will have tomorrow and Friday off, for a four-day weekend. We will be cooking mashed potatoes and green bean casserole tomorrow morning, as well as preparing the ham we got. All of this, we will transport to Mineral Wells, where we will meet up with R & J to have Thanksgiving lunch with my mother. She plans to cook some things as well. We are looking forward to a nice time, as well as the rest that we get on Friday.

Oh, yes. C has an appointment with a vascular surgeon, as recommended by the ER doctor, on December 4, a Monday. I will probably take some time off without pay in order to be with her.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL AND PRAYERS
All Scriptures are from the ESV unless otherwise noted

(From The Divine Hours)

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; praise him, all creatures here below; praise him above, you heavenly hosts; praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Doxology
Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God.
Psalm 43:3-4
Splendor and honor and kingly power are yours by right, O Lord our God, For you created everything that is, and by your will they were created and have their being.
A Song to the Lamb
But my people did not listen to my voice; Israel would not submit to me.
Psalm 81:11
And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Matthew 19:23-26
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
Isaiah 9:2

(From Living the Message)

Why is it that, when we meet someone new, either they or we almost immediately ask the question, “What do you do?”

The answer to the question can do one of two things, or maybe both at the same time. “Work can reveal something essential about us – express our values, articulate our morals, act out our convictions of what it means to be a human being, created in the image of God. Or work can conceal our real identity.” It might even be a front to show something to people that we want them to see, rather than what is really there, because, maybe we haven’t truly become what we want people to see. “For most of us, the two vocational things are mixed: revealing/expressing, and concealing/diverting.”

Is your job something to hide in or behind, or is it an “honest expression of character?”

One thing that Peterson doesn’t actually touch on here, but that I believe, is that our identity does not come from our work. And for many people, they believe it does. My identity comes from God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit. So my “work,” for me, is just that . . . work. The “work” that I do on Sunday morning, and sometimes Saturday nights, is more of an expression of who I am, and that is a worshiper of God, a follower of Christ. I try to portray that at my paying job, as well. It’s not so easy, and I frequently fail.

The diligent find freedom in their work; the lazy are oppressed by work.
Proverbs 12:24 (The Message)

Father, thank you for being here, around me, within me. Thank you that everything I do happens in the midst of your presence. I simply ask that I be more aware of that, each day. Keep me remembering that my identity, my purpose, is wrapped up in you, not in “what I do.”
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Grace and peace, friends.