Happy Labor Day // 1 Corinthians 3:9

1 Corinthians 3:9 (NIV) | For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Happy Labor Day! I hope you are able to enjoy some rest if you are off of work today. If you are working, know that you are appreciated for what you to do contribute to society.

Contributions are important, aren’t they? God designed each and every one of us with special interests, skills, talents, and abilities. Living into this God-given design helps make God known through our work, play, and relationships. Some of this might seem pretty ordinary, but our lives in Christ are exrtra-ordinary! And when we join God in the work He has for us to do, we will realize He is working on us, too. I think this is one reason Jesus spent time working as a carpenter…He is constantly remodeling us as He tends the proverbial soil of our lives.

I want to close with The Message’s rendering of Romans 12:1. Read this and think about how God invites us into His redemptive work for our sake and others’: “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him.”

Let’s make this Labor Day one where we pledge to live for the Lord in all places and ways. After all, as our verse for the day states, we are the field the Lord is tending and the building He is erecting. May our lives be given in service to this work!