Lovin the Job


(Note to Reader: Today we’re back to “River Crossings”, excerpts from our stay in Thailand a few years ago. We will intersperse these with “Real Time” reports from along the road as we make our circuitous journey back home to Australia. For today, please enjoy…)


Do any of you remember as a child reading your first word? For our boys, it was the “Toto” brand on Japanese toilets. For Nicki, I think it was “kaka”, only because Nathan would write it down and go to great pains to teach it to her, then roll over laughing when she’d try it out on us. For Tony and me, yesterday, it was the unabandoned joy of reading the word “YAA” in Thai letters and understanding that it meant “medicine”. Never mind that it was written just over a huge sign in English which said “Pharmacy”; we would have gotten it; honest. We were so excited. I wish I could write it for you in Thai so you could be impressed, but my computer would probably blow up. Anyway, along with our first driving experience in Bangkok, it’s been a real gold star week.

We’ve been thinking a lot about our “Work” lately, especially as we anticipate finishing our school requirement in a few months and start earning our keep. Also, one of the comments in the blog: “WHY are you doing this to yourselves?” caused us to stop and consider, why indeed? It’s no secret that we get really homesick some days, and it doesn’t help that we’ve done the math, and find we COULD retire today if we really wanted to. But to do that would mean giving up the JOB, and that’s a big step in anybody’s book.

Just what is our “job” anyway, and what does it matter if we show up for work tomorrow or not? Oswald Chambers, our favorite devotional writer, has been talking a lot about “jobs” this last week. He seems to say over and over “Quit trying to “work for Jesus”; simply let Jesus reflect who He is THROUGH you and be what you are at the end of the day: His precious child. Now on one hand, I suppose that could be read as a proof text for why we should clean out our desk and head for home. But would that be reflecting Jesus through our lives? Today… I think not. I say that, because, well, as much as we groan and complain about our “tough” missionary lives (which I’ll have to be honest with you, is not that bad), the simple fact is, we love what God is letting us do today.

I saw that reflected in Tony’s eyes this morning, as he preached at another Japanese church. Yeah, it wasn’t Thai, and I still had to beat him to make him do his homework tonight, but just watching him up there, telling the people how much God loves them, and praying that somehow, they would know the joy of knowing the Savior, I had to admit, he LOVES what he’s doing. And so do I. The only other place I’ve seen that kind of joy this week is in the faces of the employees at our local department store. These guys work 10 – 12 hour shifts for a wage that most of us would consider a travesty. Then every day at 5:00 PM, (after they’re about halfway through their shift) the whole store stops and sings the company song while the employees dance around the aisles. Yeah, it’s silly, but they seem to love it. We make it a point sometimes to do our shopping around 5:00 just so we can catch the show. It’s infectious; I hope it’s the way our own joy is seen.

Love, Marsha


So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under

the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15)



 

 


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