Workplace IN Vocation (Part Two)

Make your bed.

Stewardship comes with Ownership,

Ownership Demands Stewardship

Admiral Bill McRaven, Head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, 36-year SEAL, says everything begins with making your bed. His commencement was delivered to graduates at his alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin, on May 17.

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, reinforcing the fact that the little things in life matter.

If you can’t do the little things right, you will never be able to do the big things right.  So if you want to change the world, start off by making your bed. .  .  .

The responsibility of life demands we care about the little things. Our work begins with our workplace. Here is how God created the place where we work. Creation is a place which is

1. Good and beautiful” (Gen 1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 )
2. Needing human attention” (Gen 1:28; 2:15)
3. Profitable and pleasing” (Gen 2:9)
4. Where people are responsible for it” (Gen 2:19, 20)
5. Repurposed, not replaced” (Isa 65:17-25; Acts 3:21; Rev 21:1) 

God gave creation–our workplace–the rhythm of life, the ability to create. God gave creation rhythm, cadence, order, harmony, predictability.

The rhythm of creation creates responsibility for our workplace. Five examples include

1. Artistry—God made, worked
2. Regulation—God separated
3. Organization—God called
4. Evaluation—God saw
5. Appreciation—God saw “it was good”

Appreciation point to beauty and aesthetics describing our workplace. We have

1. Reminders of where we came from and where they are going to
2. Responsibility to participate with God in managing the creation
3. Residence, the creation is “home,” important to everyone
4. Reality: This world IS my home, I’m NOT just passin’ through
5. Relationship: community necessitates place

Response to our workplace prompts questions for the Christian to consider.

1. How does where we live impact what we do? (urban-suburban-rural; nation-state-community)
2. How does what we have impact what we do? (possessions-skills-ideas)
3. How does our view of material things influence how or why we work?
4. How do we depend on the rhythm of creation for our work?
5. How does ownership demand stewardship?

At the end of the day responsibility to our workplace begins where we live, with what we own, how we practice stewardship, and something as simple as making our bed.

Mark has been teaching the phrase “vocation IS ministry” since teaching teenagers in high school. All vocations are important for the believer because God has given understanding of His world through those vocations (Is 28:23-29). Dr. Mark Eckel now shares these insights with students at Capital Seminary & Graduate School.Entries here over the next weeks are based on an adult class Mark’s pastors asked him to teach at Crossroads Community Church, Fishers, IN.