What Are You Working Towards?
Why Jesus Cared About What You Do on Monday Morning
Welcome to today’s reflection.
Some of Jesus’ hardest teachings are not about belief, but about purpose.
Not about whether we wait for God, but how we wait.
Today’s reflection asks a simple question that refuses to stay simple:
What are you working towards?
There is a letter from St Paul to the Thessalonians that’s a real treat because it’s surprisingly relevant to our own times. It’s about people who, convinced the world was about to end, decided to… take early retirement.
Yes, really. The Christians in Thessalonica had gone all-in on “end-time fever.” Jesus was returning any day now, so they thought, What’s the point of work? They cashed in their savings, put their feet up, and waited for the clouds to part.
How did they spend their sudden retirement? Charitable work? Acts of kindness? Not exactly. Paul writes that they spent their days popping round each other’s houses, gossiping and being busybodies. (I’m sure retirement is nothing like that in real life!)
So Paul, ever the pastor, writes to them saying, Enough of this. In his first letter, he gently scolds them: “Take care of your own business and work with your hands.” In modern terms — get on with it!
He goes on to remind them that Jesus will return, yes, but it’ll be sudden and unpredictable. The point, Paul insists, isn’t to second-guess God’s timetable but to live faithfully in the meantime. Keep working. Keep creating. Keep living.
