Work Heartily This Summer

Lectio Divina Out Loud: Erika Dix learns what it means to use her heart, hands, and feet to serve God.

Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord and not for others, knowing that you will receive from the Lord the due payment of the inheritance; be slaves of the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3:23-24)

It is summertime! Time for summer parties, summer vacations, summer activities, summer traditions, summer events, and summer exhaustion. It all goes hand in hand, right? We work hard to fit in all the great summer experiences before the fall season starts. And it is a lot of work.

I read this verse a couple of weeks ago, and it hit home. Saint Paul must know what it feels like to be a mom with kids, a husband, parents, siblings, cousins, and great friends. All of these others I am serving—but am I serving them for myself or for God? I am coordinating, scheduling, driving, making and supplying. If I am serving God, then why am I yelling, directing and ordering the people who I am serving? My family has nicknamed themselves my “arms” since I am expecting them to behave exactly like I would want my arms to do to carry out the many tasks before me. I believe we are to be God’s hands and feet, and not my family to be mine.

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I found another version of this verse that I think speaks a little more of what we are to do. “Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ.”

When we put our heart, namely Jesus, into our tasks, then we are able to serve others, namely the Lord Christ.

I believe that God gave us summertime to connect with others through great experiences. While that does take a lot to prepare, working heartily is exactly what it says: work from your heart! When I do that, God’s love flows through my own hands and feet, and my family is not forced to be mine. Then we all get to enjoy the summer experiences together with that beautiful reward in mind of God’s time spent with us and our families.