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Created for Good Works – The Formed Future · Still, Here

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is still here.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet moment to remember what is true.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to these words from the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 10.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For we are his workmanship,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: created in Christ Jesus for good works,
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: There is a small difference in wording that can change the entire weight of this verse.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says we are created for good works.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: He does not say we were created to do enough good works to justify our existence.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: That matters.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: When we hear vocation through the language of performance,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: good works becomes another way to prove that we matter.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: We measure output.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: We compare usefulness.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: We wonder whether we have done enough.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Reached enough people,
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: made enough difference, or produced enough evidence that our life has value.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul starts somewhere else.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We are God's workmanship.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Before he speaks about what to do, he speaks about what God has made.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The life comes before the work.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Grace comes before participation.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: The good works are not an entrance exam.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: They are the places where the grace already given to us becomes visible.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is one reason vocation is so much larger than employment.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: A job may be one place where good works happen,
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: but so can a kitchen table,
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: a hospital room, a friendship, a classroom, a garden, a conversation.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: A volunteer role, a creative project, or a quiet act of care that no one else notices.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: The question is not only, what is my career?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: The deeper question is, where can the life of Christ in me become available for good?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: That shifts the energy completely.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have to force usefulness out of yourself.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: You do not have to manufacture a grand purpose statement before you can begin.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can become open to the places grace is already asking to move through you.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says these works were prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Walking is ordinary language.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: One step, then another.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: It suggests a life inhabited rather than a performance completed.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Some good works will be visible.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Others will disappear into another person's life, and you may never know what became of them.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: A word of encouragement may stay with someone for years.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: A patient act of listening may change the tone of a relationship.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: The
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: value of the work is not determined by how publicly it is measured.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is good because it participates in the goodness of God.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, today, resist the pressure to prove your significance.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, become available.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Ask where grace has placed you.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Ask who is near.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: Ask what goodness could look like through your particular hands,
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: mind, voice, experience, and presence.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Your life is not an empty container waiting for you to fill it with achievements.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: You are God's workmanship already,
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: and from that grace you can walk into the good that is yours to do.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: Take a moment for this prayer of presence.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, let me live from grace instead of trying to prove my usefulness.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Remind me that I am your workmanship before I accomplish anything.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Open my eyes to the good works already near me.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Make me available for love, service, creativity, care, and faithfulness.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let your goodness shine through what I do without turning my life into a performance.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: As you step back into the rhythm of your day, carry this prayer with you.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I am your workmanship.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Make me available for good.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: I am your workmanship.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: Make me available for good.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I am your workmanship.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Make me available for good.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, stay steady, stay open, stay present, You are still here.