Thank God It's Monday

TGIM

-Thank God It’s Monday-

Romans 12:1 - Message by Eugene Peterson – “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.”

We are all familiar with the acrostic: TGTIF – “Thank God It’s Friday.” I want to suggest a new acrostic: TGIM – “Thank God It’s Monday.”

I’m not talking about “Thank God It’s Monday,” because I’m going to call my work and tell them I’m worn out due to all the weekend activities and won’t make it to work. People can think up all kinds of excuses for not going to work on Monday. A New York temporary help firm collected some of the excuses employees made for not showing up for work on Monday. “I had to sort my socks.” “My favorite actress just got married, and I need time alone.” “The wind was blowing against me.” “A plane landed on the highway.” “There was a bear on my street.” One employ was honest and confessed, “I just forgot to come to work.”

I. Your Work Matters to God

The translation of Romans 12:1 by Eugene Peterson in the Message declares that your work matters to God. “Your everyday, ordinary - life you sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life” matters to God.

The writer of Ecclesiastes believed that work was a gift from the Lord. Ecclesiastes 5:19 NLT, “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life – that is indeed a gift from God.”

There may be some of you who work for bosses you are convinced missed their calling as a gift from the Lord. I hope none of you have a boss like Sally who woke up every morning feeling like she had to push a giant boulder up a hill at work. She told about her boss who lectured the workers under him unmercifully in a meeting before work started. One by one, he presented them with a painful list of all their failures, flaws and shortcomings. He chided them for over an hour for all the mistakes they had made over the year. Then he announced that the Human Resources Department of the company was sponsoring a blood drive and that he would donate the first pint of blood. An anxious voice piped up form the rear of the room and asked, “But whose blood?” I hope you have a boss that is more sympathetic.

Have you ever gotten so angry with your boss that you wanted to walk out the door? Advice columnist Jeffrey Zaslow once asked his readers the question, “Had they ever gotten so angry with their boss that they wanted to quite their job?” He received several interesting stories:

Several waitresses and secretaries said their most satisfying career moves were when they walked out the door. Gina, a restaurant waitress, told how her boss once offered her a ten-cent a month raise, ‘as a big favor.” Gina saw it as a big insult so she quit. It made her day, she said, “to see the manager running from table to table, trying to fill her shoes.”

From the beginning of creation God blessed the work of His hands and gave the first family work to do. “So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day, having finished his task, God rested from all his work.” Genesis 2:1-2

“The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it.” Genesis 2:15

From the beginning of creation God created humankind to be His co-workers. God placed man in the Garden of Eden and gave him the responsibility of caring for it. Man’s job was to cultivate and care for the garden. Work from the beginning was a partnership, God planted the Garden and man cultivated it.

All legitimate work is an extension of God’s work.

False views of work leave God out. Some see work as the ultimate purpose to find personal fulfillment. When a person has this view their world falls apart when they lose their job or feel like they are a failure at their work.

Another false view of work sees work related to success. Success in life means success in work. This person looks at his or her work as the reason for living. One person refused to retire because it would mean the end of his career.

You can look at the term “Success” in many ways. A man may be a secret alcoholic, his third wife may have walked out on him, his kids are on drugs, and his subordinates hate his guts, yet from the world’s view he is successful in his business. He is regarded as a successful person. People are eager to get his endorsement, his money, his endorsement and his participation.