Yesterday morning was lovely. Warm but overcast, a light breeze wafting and the promise of some rain. I went out to have a cup of coffee on the front porch and watched as workers continued building a new access road to the local elementary school. A flat bed truck appeared with a single plastic drain pipe strapped on its back. The driver emerged and began the task of taking the pipe off and carrying it over to his colleagues to be installed. I have never seen anyone move as slowly as this man did. He could not have crawled any more slowly from one latch to the next as he loosened the restraining bands so that he could unload the pipe. Finally, he got them all loose and oh so slowly picked up the pipe - it was not heavy - and, with it on his shoulder, sauntered over to where his co-laborers were waiting to put it in the ground. Then he trudged back to his truck and, in what seemed like an eternity, filled out the paperwork indicating "job well done", got in his truck, and drove off.

I wondered: Would this man have moved any faster if he was performing this task under fire? If bullets were whizzing around him, ricocheting off his truck, would he have stepped up the pace a bit? I've never seen anyone do a simple task so slowly and with such apparent want of interest or delight. Then I wondered if this is not how I sometimes appear to others as I go about my daily tasks. Does the joy of my salvation show through? Is it apparent to those around me that I am carrying out a calling from God, in the midst of relentless spiritual warfare, with delight and satisfaction? Do people who see me at work consider that I'm sauntering through a job or soldiering on for the Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit?

We never know who's watching us, or what they may be thinking as they do. As followers of Christ we are recipients of the highest mandate and calling anyone can receive. No matter what our work, if we are doing iti as unto the Lord, that should be apparent to those who know us and observe us on task. Let them not view us as sauntering leisurely through a meaningless job. Instead, let them see us taking the next hill with gusto, raising the banner of the Lord over all we do, and readying for the next advance in a life-long struggle for the Kingdom.

T. M. Moore