Not too many years ago, I was the foreman of a concrete construction crew. I had hired an employee that just didn’t work out so good. He was a big guy so I thought he would be a valuable asset, but he didn’t make the most out of his size or strength.
During his first week, I had left him to strip some forms from a recent pour. Soon afterwards, my boss called me in an angry tone wondering who was the fairy out stripping the foundation. He had seen a guy out there standing by the form trailer with his shirt off, and when he drove over to investigate, he found him with a bottle of suntan lotion. He introduced himself as the new concrete guy and promptly asked the big boss of the company if he would help him out by rubbing suntan lotion on his back!
My boss wanted me to fire him immediately, but I wanted to give him a chance to toughen up.
Within a few days, this guy showed up one morning trying to get out of work with a doctor’s note. You won’t believe what his excuse was. The note was for a hangnail!
“A hangnail?” I asked! “This isn’t high school! You don’t show up with doctors notes to a construction crew! Get to work or get out of here!” And that was the end of him.
He was a big disappointment.
People can come up with all sorts of flimsy excuses for not doing the things they are supposed to do. A hangnail certainly isn’t a valid excuse for not working on a concrete crew. And regardless of the guy’s size or ability, no one was impressed with him any longer when he decided to sunbathe when there was a job to do.
Christian, the Big Boss has given us a clear mandate of what we are supposed to be doing here on earth. God has things for you to be doing. Ephesians 2:10 says that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” All we need to do is discover what they are and walk in them. You and I have tremendous potential when it comes to doing great things for the kingdom of God. He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. (2Pet 1:3)
The world is sinking into hell all around us, and Jesus very clearly gave us the great commission of going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature, yet many of us are like a guy more concerned with tanning oils and sunbathing than we are about getting the job done.
My friend Danny Lehmann, in his book “Stoked”, wrote, “far too many Christian’s behave like elderly folks sitting at a bus stop waiting for the rapture than they do like an army of disciplined soldiers who are occupying until the Lord returns.”
There are plenty of distractions to keep you from doing the things God called you to do. There are ample excuses, if you’re looking for one.
But if you want to hear the words, Well done, good and faithful servant,” (Mt 25:23) then it requires that you BE good and faithful.
Don’t waste the resources, gifts, and talents God gave you. Use them to win your world for Christ! Go do it!