workplace-ministry.com

Our Pastor has been doing a wonderful series on ‘church without walls’. That is, ministry in the community, workplace, at home, anywhere outside the walls of our church.

He took us through a few challenging items this morning and I’ll share on each one in separate posts. Today I want to concentrate on Working With Honesty, and in particular, with our own energy.

He told us how, in the Australian economy, about $10billion a year is spent in dealing with problems caused by lack of sleep. That’s an astronomical amount of money. We were encouraged to think carefully about how much sleep and rest we get when we are not working. This relates to both employees, employers and the self-employed.

If we are not well rested and arrive at work having been up all the previous night at a party, or dinner, or something else, then it’s reasonable to expect we’re not going to be able to give of our best during the business hours. Our energy is spent and just not available.

When we arrive at our job or our business, our boss, colleagues and clients should receive the best possible service and performance from us. But frequently they don’t. We’re being paid under false pretenses and the company we provide a service to is getting inferior performance. Not to mention the problems that arise health wise from extended periods of lack of sleep and resulting accidents on the job or on the road. Just look at what happens with the truckies for example, if they’re doped up (pardon the pun) on drugs to stay awake so they can get their deliveries made.

So, are you getting enough sleep and rest at night and on the weekends so you can turn up to work on Monday fully rejevenated? Or are you letting your workplace down? Worth thinking about. If you’re ’stealing’ the energy that should be available for your job you’re not only letting the workplace down, you’re also letting God down.