Work as Worship

Work as Worship

Brother Lawrence in his monastery kitchen described his approach to washing pots: 'I flip the pan as I do everything else, for love of God.' He did not distinguish between sacred and secular labor. To him, the kitchen was a chapel and the cleaning of a pot was as holy as the Mass. Centuries later, Dorothy Sayers made the same argument in a famous essay: 'The only Christian work is good work well done.' The carpenter who builds a good chair glorifies God as surely as the preacher who gives a good sermon. The distinction between sacred and secular labor is itself the problem. All legitimate work done well and given to God is worship.

Colossians 3:23 is Paul's most radical statement about work: whatever you do — every category of human labor, from the most mundane to the most elevated — can be done as work for the Lord. The key phrase is 'working for the Lord, not for human masters.' The audience of your work changes everything. When God is the audience, the standard is excellence and integrity rather than the minimum that satisfies the human supervisor. When God is the audience, work that goes unseen or unappreciated is still fully witnessed. When God is the audience, even boring work becomes meaningful because the One you're working for gives it meaning. Who is the audience of your work today?