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38: A Vessel for Love: Finding Eternal Meaning in Your Daily Work · Finding God at Work

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  (Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, I'm Chris.
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  This is Finding God at Work.
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  Just a reminder that Finding God at Work
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  isn't just a podcast.
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  It's also an online course.
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  Check it out at findinggodatwork.org.
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  Today we're concluding our series, Meaningful Work, Calling,
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  Formation, Service, and Love.
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  Have you ever been to a really good
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  retirement party?
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  A couple of years ago, I had the
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  privilege of attending the retirement party for Mr.
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  Klum, who had been the principal and head
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  of school at the school I attended as
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  a child.
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  Now this school, in many ways, was small.
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  It was K-8 school, not necessarily the
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  most impressive place in the world.
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  It was an evangelical institution founded by graduates
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  of Wheaton College.
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  And Mr. Klum had dedicated his whole career
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  to this school in its smallness and in
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  its everydayness.
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  He started as a teacher.
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  He became an administrator and he just gave
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  it his all.
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  And that was so clear.
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  And, you know, at that retirement party, we
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  were holding it in a building, a new
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  building that had been built from the ground
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  up for the school.
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  The school was thriving.
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  Enrollment was up.
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  There were lots of resources in place to
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  serve students well.
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  There were new initiatives to make financial aid
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  possible for students from different backgrounds to come
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  to the school.
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  A lot of cool things were happening.
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  But you know what people talked about at
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  Mr. Klum's retirement party at that celebration?
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  They didn't talk about how amazing the school
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  was or how the school had grown and
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  changed.
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  They talked about how Mr. Klum loved people.
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  They talked about how when there were gatherings
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  and everybody got to eat, he would always
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  wait and eat last.
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  They talked about how he would learn children's
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  names and get down and talk to them
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  on their level, which was challenging for him
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  to do because I think he's like six
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  foot seven.
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  They talked about how he would coach his
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  basketball teams and call it the best in
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  the students that he coached.
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  I had stories like that that I could
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  remember from my interactions with Mr. Klum.
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  And there was a reason that I decided
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  to go show up, you know, as an
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  adult in my thirties to his retirement party,
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  because I remembered what it was like to
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  be in the hallway and to see his
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  face light up or to be having a
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  conversation and to know that he really took
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  what you were saying seriously, even though you
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  were just a kid.
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  People knew love because of Mr. Klum.
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  People experienced love because of Mr. Klum.
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  People experienced God's love because of Mr. Klum.
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  That's a really good retirement party.
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  And for all of us, as we think
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  about our work, I hope we're all headed
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  towards a retirement party like that, regardless of
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  whether it's recognized in an actual celebration where
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  people tell stories like that or not.
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  There's something about what we leave behind us
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  that really matters in our work.
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  And yes, as we've talked about, God accomplishes
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  things in the world through our work.
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  But even more than whatever we might accomplish
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  in our work, what we leave behind is
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  whether or not we loved.
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  Did our work hold love?
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  Was it a vessel for the love of
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  God to the people around us and to
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  the world beyond us?
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  In as much as it was, our work
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  mattered.
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  That's going to be true someday at your
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  retirement party.
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  That's going to be true someday at your
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  funeral.
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  It's going to be true in eternity that
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  the way you lived, the way you worked
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  and as much as it was love, that's
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  what made it matter.
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  That's where the meaning really was.
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  So as we come to the end of
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  a series about making work meaningful, trying to
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  figure out what's the meaning that's already there
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  in our work and how can we contribute
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  to the meaning in our work, we've looked
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  at lots of different dimensions and our work
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  and our lives are multifaceted.
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  We've talked about how to love is to
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  will the good.
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  And you as a human being, you have
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  a will, you have a capacity to choose
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  inside of you and that a machine or
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  an AI doesn't have that.
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  And so you have a unique capacity to
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  love other people in a way that a
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  machine never can.
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  And that's part of why your human work
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  is meaningful.
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  We talked about how you as a human
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  being were created by God to give yourself
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  away.
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  That there's a way that you only discover
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  your true self by giving the gift of
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  your true self to other people.
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  And so as you give yourself away in
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  your work and in other ways, you become
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  more of who you are.
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  You discover more of who you are.
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  We talked about service, how adopting the humble
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  posture of Jesus to love and to serve
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  others actually is where the greatest nobility and
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  exaltation lies in our careers.
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  We talked about just practical ways to love
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  other people, how you can encourage your teammates,
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  you can pray for your teammates, you can
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  forgive your teammates and others when they sin
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  against you.
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  You can be generous with your money that
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  you earn at your job to support people
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  and causes that matter.
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  When you experience suffering in your work, you
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  can get through it by faith and choose
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  to love others even when you're in pain.
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  And that makes that love even more precious.
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  So there's all these different dimensions, but what
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  ties them all together is love.
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  What ties them all together is God's love
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  coming into our work.
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  So I want to go back to the
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  passage that we looked at in the very
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  first episode of this series.
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  This is from 1st John, the passage that
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  famously says, God is love.
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  So just going to read a couple of
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  verses.
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  Don't have time to do the whole thing.
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  This is from chapter 4, starting in verse
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  16.
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  God is love and whoever abides in love
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  abides in God and God abides in him.
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  By this is love perfected with us so
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  that we may have confidence for the day
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  of judgment, because as he is, so also
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  are we in this world.
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  And then skipping ahead to verse 19, we
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  love because he first loved us.
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  In the first episode of this series, we
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  looked a lot at that phrase, as he
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  is, so also are we in this world.
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  That you mean something in the world.
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  Your life has meaning.
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  When people look at you, it's like they're
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  reading a word and the word is love.
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  Your life means the love of God to
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  other people.
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  And so the question is, is that really
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  true?
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  Is that really true of our lives or
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  is it just a nice idea?
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  Because if, again, if we're growing in self
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  -awareness and in humility by God's grace, a
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  lot of the time people read that word
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  and it says something besides love.
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  It says ambition.
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  It says pride.
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  It says greed.
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  It says disdain.
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  What is the word that people read when
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  they look at you this week?
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  We're weak.
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  We're sinners.
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  We don't have what it takes to give
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  people that pure, clear message of God's love
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  and the way we live every day.
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  But see, that's why that final verse 19
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  matters so much.
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  We love because he first loved.
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  Us.
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  God spoke his perfect word into the world
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  in the word, Jesus Christ.
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  Jesus at every turn was love.
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  Every time that he put his hand to
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  a hammer or a chisel to work on
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  something as a carpenter, every time he put
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  his hand on a child in blessing, every
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  time he put his hand on someone suffering
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  from leprosy or blindness to heal them, his
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  hands were expressing the meaning of the world,
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  his hands were showing people a word and
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  that word was love.
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  Jesus ultimately showed that on the cross.
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  When we look at the cross, we see
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  love.
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  We see all those things that all the
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  dimensions and the facets of it, the forgiveness
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  of God, the encouragement of God, the mercy
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  of God, the justice of God, and ultimately
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  in all of those things, the love of
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  God for people like us who don't deserve
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  it, for people like us who don't measure
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  up, who don't make the cut, who often
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  hurt others and hurt ourselves because of our
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  own proclivities for ambitions that don't satisfy.
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  And Jesus rose again on the third day
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  and in his resurrection, he is still love.
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  He gives himself as a gift of love
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  to everyone who turns to him in faith.
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  And that, that includes us.
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  So when we turn to Jesus in faith,
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  we receive that love of God for us.
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  We receive that word that says love, and
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  it begins to change us.
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  We're not perfect right away.
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  We're being perfected in love over time, like
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  the passage says, but it's still real.
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  It's still there.
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  And so that's what ultimately makes your work
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  meaningful is, is your work a vessel for
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  the love of God in Jesus Christ?
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  In as much as your work holds the
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  love of God, your work matters.
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  It is full of meaning.
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  It is revealing the very meaning of the
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  universe to the people around you.
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  And whenever our work isn't motivated by love,
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  whenever it's motivated by those other kinds of
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  false ambitions, it really, it really isn't meaningful.
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  You know, God may still use it, but
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  it's really not what we're meant to give
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  to the world.
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  So that's, that's it.
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  That's the simple way to have a meaningful
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  career and to, to find meaning at your
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  work every day is to, to love.
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  In as much as you do your work
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  as love, it matters.
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  It counts.
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  It's worth it.
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  And in as much as it's not, it's
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  not.
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  It's really, it really is that simple at
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  the end of the day.
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  And at the end of the career and
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  at the end of the life, there's going
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  to be a retirement party for you, whether
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  it's now or in eternity, where people look
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  back and they say, do you see, do
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  you see on that day, during that work
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  project, how this person, how they showed the
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  meaning of the universe to the people around
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  them, they were a word that day that
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  people could read and the word was love.
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  You see this person, when they were going
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  through that, that terrible setback, loss of income,
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  unemployment, difficulty finding work, but how they persevered
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  and how they, they sought the good of
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  others around them.
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  When people looked at them, they saw that
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  word and they could read it.
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  And the word was love.
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  You see that person, how they, they laid
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  down, uh, ambition, chose a lower paying job
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  that could serve others better, or chose to
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  take care of a sick family member when
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  they could have pursued something else, people looked
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  at them and they could read that word.
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  And that word was love.
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  Your life matters.
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  Your work matters because God is love.
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  And as He is, so also are we
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  in this world.
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  Jesus, thank you that you are the pure,
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  true, living love of God, whole without anything
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  else mixed in.
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  Make us more like you.
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  Do your work in us as we do
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  our work with you.
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  Let us be love.
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  Thanks for listening.
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  Finding God at Work is a production of
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  Mission Central, a ministry based in Aurora, Illinois,
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  dedicated to forming Christians for mission in everyday
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  life.
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  listen to this episode to get 10 minutes
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  to get resources to go deeper with each
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  podcast series, read our blog, and get info
• 13:26
  about upcoming courses on faith in the workplace,
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