Colossians 3:17. Whether in work or deed, do everything as if unto God.
I've read this verse over and over again. Only during work week has it come alive in me. Swinging the pick axe, shoveling the sand or performing any other physical task will never look the same to me again. It is worship and it is such a powerful reminder that service to those around me is actually more for God than anything else.
Sweating side by side under the scorching sun with my newfound teammates and brothers I've seen the beauty of dying to self. I've had to deny my own needs and desires, over and over again, to give my teammates a greater degree of comfort, whether it is through taking the wheelbarrow one more time or sipping last from the waterbottle. The blessing of this is that my whole team was doing the same thing. So now I'm liberated from looking after my own needs, because I have my 3 awesome teammates doing it for me. And I receive the privilege of loving them with the love of Jesus, through denying myself. The end result is that our "work your way" team is strengthend because we put ourselves second.
Jesus strengthens us over and over again, through our manual labour he was (no, IS) working in my heart to make me a better co-labourer with Him so that I can be a participant in the constructing of His kingdom on earth. That means gritting my teeth in the tough times, by working in the rain and fetching another batch of heavy curbs. Rather I'm encouraged to over and over again, rejoice in the trials because it's refining me to look more like Jesus.
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