Can you do a little mental arithmetic? Assuming you live to your early 60s, how many hours will you have spent at work? Now, do a similar exercise. Think about how many hours each week you spend on overtly ‘Christian’ activities, time at church in worship, at Bible study and in prayer groups, time at leadership meetings, teaching kids, or working with youth.
If you were to work 50 hours each week, then you would have spent about 100,000 hours at work by the end of your working life. If you were to spend (say) an average of ten hours a week in ‘Christian ministry’, then, over that same 40-year period, you would have spent 20,000 hours. In summary: 100,000 hours at work; one fifth of that time in so called ‘Christian work’.
Not in vain?
Park those numbers for a moment and consider the words of the apostle Paul: ‘Therefore my dear brothers let nothing move you. Always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain’ (1 Corinthians 15.58).
