Back to Rurality

When Work Feels Meaningless [31]

TJ Freeman Season 2 Episode 1

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary:
In this episode of Back to Rurality, rural pastor TJ Freeman talks about the purpose we can find in everyday tasks, from chores to work to school, by recognizing God's greater plan. He shares personal anecdotes, including his time working in a freezer, and biblical insights to encourage listeners to see all of their actions as expressions of God's glory. He emphasizes that all work, whether paid or unpaid, seen or unseen, is valuable because it is done in God's image and for His glory.


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Do you have a to do list? Maybe you don't have one on paper or on your phone, but you've got that ongoing list of stuff you have to do in your mind. What kind of things are on your to do list this week? There's fixing up the stuff around the house, that pile of laundry you've been putting off, there's all the stuff you need to do at work or at school.

Do you ever get frustrated that that list just seems endless? I mean, Sometimes it feels repetitive, and it seems like the stuff we do really doesn't get noticed and doesn't always seem that important. Well today, we're going to talk about how everything you do, from the most mundane tasks, to the things that seem most important and exciting to you, whether at home, or at work, or at school, when you're out with people, or all by yourself.

All of those things you do have deep meaning when you remember God's greater purpose for your life. The truth is, every task is an opportunity to reflect the image of God. Well, hello, my name is TJ Freeman, and I am a rural pastor, and just like you, yep, I live in the middle of nowhere. And just like you, man, I've been dying for another episode of Back to Rurality.

It's been forever. I've missed you. I hope you've missed me too. This is in fact, season two. If you missed season one, you can go back and listen. There's an opportunity for you to do our first, I call it our first 21 episodes. It's really starting an episode three, but it's a 21 episode series called Rural Reset, where we just get back to the basics of the faith. 

This season, we're just gonna keep building on that foundation that we laid last season, and thinking from God's Word what we are meant to do with our lives way out here in the middle of nowhere. And I hope to cover a lot of topics that are encouraging and helpful for you as you just live day to day As a rural Christian today, we are talking about your work.

And I know some of you listening are students and you feel like, well, I don't have a job yet, so I really don't work. Some of you are homemakers, stay at home moms. And you're thinking, yeah, I wish I had somewhere I could go during the day, other than sticking around this place. Hey. Whatever it is you're doing, whether you get a paycheck or not, whether you're laboring, studying, raising a family, taking care of your home, that is work that you have to do.

You gotta put in the hours every single day and every single week or things will begin to fall apart. Well, how can we recover a sense of meaning and purpose when those things start to feel less exciting? Maybe even a little discouraging or frustrating. You know, I had a job one time that I had a hard time seeing any redeeming value in.

I was the freezer manager. At a Hershey's ice cream depot, where we would deliver the tubs of ice cream and the novelty ice creams out both to mom and pop stores in the country, where they sell the most delicious root beer. And also to ghetto stores, that rural people like us aren't super comfortable in.

I had that great experience of being able to visit all of those kinds of places. But my day to day was working pretty much by myself in a giant Walk in freezer. You ready for the temperature? Minus 20. You heard that right. Minus 20 degrees all the time. You spend more than about five minutes in minus 20 degrees and when you smile your face just stays in that position.

Even when you're done smiling your cheeks just stay right up there. It's so cold and I don't like the cold and I don't like working by myself as introverted as I am. And so I would go into this freezer every day in my snowmobile suit, shut the door behind me, it would lock. And there I was with tubs and tubs of ice cream, by the way, side note, talk about temptation.

Good night. But anyway. Walking around in that freezer, loading up a cart with tubs of ice cream, did not feel very meaningful. Especially as a Christian, thinking about how to serve the Lord with my life, being alone in that freezer just didn't seem like the best opportunity. Here's something I wish I would have had in that moment.

I wish I would have understood better what it meant to be created in God's image and given his dominion. Now in Genesis 1: 26 to 28, Moses, who wrote that thing begins to help us understand what it means to be made in God's image. He explains that God made man in his image after his likeness. What does that mean?

Well, it means you represent him in some way. Something about God's nature and about God's character is revealed through you. Why don't you just let that sink in for a second? You are an image bearer. Humans have a greater capacity to give God glory than anything else in the whole universe, because nothing else is made in God's image.

That's something. And then you go on to see that he created us male and female. So image bearing in verse 27 we see is something that happens through the complementary relationship of men and women. So whether you are male or female, you play an important role in image bearing. That couldn't happen the same way without you.

God chose to make you, how about that? And he chose to make you either male or female as part of the way he wanted you to bear his image. And together, male and female bear his image in the fullest form. It goes on to say in verse 28 that you are given dominion over all the rest of creation.

My sort of shorthand of summarizing that is to say that God has entrusted you to care for the rest of his stuff. He's made all of creation for himself and he's made you as the appointed steward, the one who is to care for and maximize all the rest of creation, so that God is glorified through it.

Fast forward to the. New Testament, and there's a passage in 1st Corinthians written by the Apostle Paul, 1st Corinthians 10, verse 31. Listen to what it says. Whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God. Wow! That changes the perspective a little bit. Paul's saying that in something as mundane as eating and drinking.

 So, when you're munching on that piece of fried chicken, you are bearing God's image and exercising His dominion. You're not just eating chicken. You're making a statement about the wisdom and the goodness of God, about Your dependence on the Lord who provides those kinds of things for you.

You are glorifying God by enjoying the good food that he made. Now, let's think more about your work. If you're to live for His glory, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, that includes caring for kids at home. That includes sitting down to study for a test. That includes going into an office and doing whatever your assignment is, quietly, without ever, anybody ever knowing what you've done while you're in there. You are doing it to the glory of God. 

How do you do that? That's the big question. Number one, you need to recognize that even if no one else is looking, there's always a host of angels and demons who are looking on in everything we do.

That's a helpful reminder. And those angels and demons learn stuff about God by looking at humans. We tend to think that they know everything. But they are not all knowing. They've been around a long time. They've seen a lot of stuff. But they're continuing to watch. And they see you. Even when no one else is looking.

Beyond that, the Lord who made you is looking. And he has worked the circumstances of your life together to get you into that spot that you're in right now. Riding in the truck. On your way from one field to the next. Sitting in the office, all alone. There in the home, taking care of your baby and folding laundry while they sleep.

There on the soccer field, worse yet, sitting on the bench, not being able to play and supporting your team. Wherever it is you find yourself right now, listening to this, or whatever it is you find yourself doing, God has worked the circumstances of your life together so that you would be there in that place at that time.

And so you begin recognizing God made me, he made me in his image. He may be responsible as a steward and he's placed me right here, right now. So I need to think about the right kind of stuff. I need to do my best doing this thing because I at least have an audience of the Lord, and probably some angels and demons, and there's probably somebody I'm accountable to as I work out these things.

So remembering the reality that. You're not just there by accident. You're not just there because it's a weird season in life. You are there because God wants you there. He's got you there, and He's got you there for His glory. Living in the middle of nowhere, sometimes this is especially difficult, because you can go a long time in loneliness.

Not really having anybody to talk to about the things you're feeling or not having any resources to work through, even if you do Talk to others about how you're feeling. So for this episode The main thing you want to consider is the fact that whatever it is You're doing, you're meant to do it for god's glory, and you do that in a special way, Because you are an image bearer. Let that fuel your thoughts and replace the yucky thoughts of, I don't find fulfillment in this.

Uh, I feel like this is mundane and routine. Uh, I wish I was doing something else. Hey, lean into what God has you to do today. It's his will that you're doing it because, well, you're there. Do it faithfully for the glory of God in whose image you've been made and whose dominion you are called to exercise.

So why don't we recap? What did we learn today? Just what I just said. You are made in God's image. You bear his image, you show off his nature and character, you are a steward, you've been entrusted the responsibility of caring for his stuff, and you're meant to do it all for his glory. How about a little song that might help you out?

Have you heard of All Glory Be To Christ? There's a version I like by King's Kaleidoscope, it starts off with just like a trombone, and then in comes the lyrics to a very familiar tune, sounds like Auld Lang Syne.

Should nothing of our efforts stand, no legacy survive, unless the Lord does raise the house in vain, its builders strive. To you who boast tomorrow's gain, tell me, what is your life? A mist that vanishes at dawn, all glory be to Christ. The chorus is what I love. Just repeats. All glory be to Christ our King, all glory be to Christ.

His rule and reign we'll ever sing, All Glory Be to Christ. It's a beautiful song. Cue that one up on the old Spotify and put it on and see if it doesn't encourage you just a little bit. Fun fact, I don't play the accordion, but my mother in law does, and she taught me. So one Christmas service, I played the accordion for All Glory Be to Christ while other people sang.

And it was a once and done, but it was fun. Hope you have a great day. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Back to Rurality. See, I haven't recorded in a while, so I've kind of forgotten how to say Rurality. But with a little practice, I'll be right back in the swing of things.

You can practice it too. It's a tough word to say. This is a ministry of the Brainerd Institute for Rural Ministry. We exist to equip, The saints, to lead healthy rural churches. You may not be in a healthy rural church, but you are a representation of the church right there in your community. And we want you to be healthy. For more information, head on over to brainerdinstitute.com. For now, though, let's get back to life back to Rurality.

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