Higher Purpose

I was listening the other day to someone speak about a study completed recently correlating wages and job production.  The study compared the output of workers in relation to the amount of salary paid and found that workers paid more for the same job, did not perform better on the whole.  In fact, the ones paid less tended to do better.

It seems that the ones who were paid less placed more value on their job and the ones who were paid more placed more value on themselves.  That being true, the higher paid workers felt their job was beneath them and the lower paid workers felt lucky or blessed to have a job.

However, there was another group which outperformed everyone else - the ones who found a higher purpose in their job or vocation.  Those who saw their work as bigger than themselves and/or more important than their individual lives, tended to have very high output, regardless of the pay.  These kind of workers often put in extra hours for no pay, many simply volunteer.

As another chaplain and I were traveling yesterday to a conference in Oklahoma  City, we both were receiving calls from our offices regarding concerns with veteran population.  He, a chaplain working with the VA and me a chaplain coordinating veteran services for Arkansas Hospice, took those calls and helped to work out their issues even though we were released from regular duties to present at this conference.  Why?

We both believe that what we do is important work.  We both work more hours than we're paid for and take calls after hours because we believe our cause is great.  We serve a segment of our population that has served our country and many are in dire need of being ministered to now. And, as the Blues Brothers said, "We're on a mission from God!"

We both believe that we are working for the Lord and that fact alone makes whatever we do vitally important, having a higher purpose then ourselves.  But the truth is, every Christian should approach his/her work in this light: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters" (Col 3:23).

Think what a better world this would be if we all approached our jobs with this kind of attitude.  Consider how your witness for God would be amplified as you worked with joy and purpose instead of drudgery and complaints.  How much more productive would we be and therefore our communities and our country if all Christians worked as though for the Lord and not for man.  What if indeed we all set about our tasks as a mission for God?  Jus' Ask'n.