Unlikely Heroes

00:05

What’s up, everyone. I’m your host, Wanda Thibodeaux, and you’re listening to Faithful on the Clock, the podcast all about getting your work and faith aligned. In today’s episode, Episode 6, I’m talking about how God loves taking the most unlikely people and turning them into heroes. What does that mean for you in the sense of being happy no matter what job you might have and the attitude you should have as you move up the ladder? It’s all starting...right now.

00:39

So I want to start today by pointing out that, I think especially in American culture right now, there’s this tendency to see certain jobs as being better than others. Jobs like doctor, for example, those are the quote, unquote, “good” jobs, where jobs like, you know, your garbage collector, fast food worker, those are the jobs people look down on.

And I think side by side with this, there’s this concept that you can kind of predict who’s going to make it or be important. You know we say, wow, this person really has an aptitude for this type of work or that type of work, and we look to see if they have traits like charisma, and if they do, we say they to watch them, because they’ve got great potential or whatever. And in the same way, we lay out really specific requirements like taking specific classes or training, and we assume that people are deserving or competent if they’ve met those requirements.

01:26

But if you look at scripture, God rarely operates that way. What he does is flip every expectation about class or privilege on its head. And there are plenty of examples of this, of where he basically pulls someone out of obscurity and puts them at the helm in one way or another.

01:43

One example is Moses--you’ll find his story in Exodus 2-12. He was the son of a Hebrew slave who became a fugitive, and he lived most of his life taking care of livestock. But God called him to go challenge one of the most powerful men on Earth, the pharoah of Egypt, and to lead the Israelites out of slavery. And even though Moses protested and said, “Hey, who am I to go and do a job like that?”, God reassured Moses, and Moses did exactly the job God wanted him to do.

02:14

You get another great example with Joseph in Genesis 37-50. Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, and Joseph ended up working for YEARS in an Egyptian prison. He was a nobody. And just like today, if you went to prison back then, you’d do work. And Joseph could have said, you know, I’m not supposed to be here, I’m not going to put my best effort into anything if I don’t have to. But He believed in God, and so he worked hard and had integrity through the tasks he had. And eventually, Joseph earned the respect of the Pharoah, and when famine came to Egypt, his plan to stockpile grain ended up saving not just the people of Egypt, but the same brothers who had sold him into slavery in the first place. And Joseph even told them directly that God had used their evil for good.

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04:11

So you can see that God’s flipping of the usual way of things is very intentional. And in Ecclesiastes 3-5, King Solomon talks about we can’t take any material gains with us when we die. He points out that we really have no advantage compared to, say, an ox, except that we can take joy in what we do. In Ecclesiastes 5:18-19, he points out that it’s good for a person to find satisfaction in their labor. He says that when God gives you wealth and the ability to enjoy it, to be happy in your toil, it’s a GIFT. Verse 20 says, “They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.”

04:56

So that ability to do work and be happy through it, that’s not an accident. It doesn’t matter what the work is or how society might see it, it all serves the same purpose, which is to keep us from feeling totally useless and languishing until we can get back to Heaven. And I know--I mean, I admit, there are times when I’m standing there scrubbing the toilet, and I think “Really, God? This is what I’m supposed to do?” And I have to recenter myself and just say, “OK God, I’m clueless about how this fits in your plan, but I can still be happy that I’m able to get it done and that you’re not letting me just sit idle and lament over everything.” And you really, in those moments, you have to tell yourself that you can do everything, no matter what it is, to speak to God through the love language of service. You can trust that he’s got it all planned out even if the job is the most menial, the most disrespected job in the world, even if, like Joseph, we have no idea what kind of glorious finish line He’s taking us to.

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So what this means for you when you go into the office is, even if you don’t have the best position or title while you’re here on Earth, as long as you have faith, you’re not going to be lowly where it counts, which is in Heaven with God. There’s not one reason why you should be jealous of someone who outranks you or who has more right now, because they’re not necessarily going to be the ones God gives authority to later on. At the same time, God can use you for all kinds of things, even things you might not see yourself as being capable of. Even if you don’t feel ready or qualified, he can call you up at any minute to take something on, and you don’t have to be afraid of that at all, because just like he did with Moses, just like he did for Jesus on the cross, he’ll stay with you and walk you through it.

6:44

So let me pray.

God, I know there are people out there who are embarrassed or even ashamed by the jobs they have. But flipping the script is your calling card, and you use the most unlikely, most lowly of people for the most important things all the time. Help the people who are constantly worried that they need something better to accept the gift of joy you want to give. Help them to trust that no matter what tasks are on their plate, they can take satisfaction right here, right now, in a job well done, and in the fact that you’re going to put them in exactly the right position at the right time. Let them face every task with integrity and know their time is coming, so they can get the result you want. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

07:43

We’ve reached the end, everyone. Looking ahead to the next episode, if you heard my sneak peak bonus episode, it’s that big one I promised you, work-life balance. Are we really seeing that idea the right way, and how can we stop the teeter-totter from wobbling all over the place? Join me for that discussion next week, and until then, be blessed.