I am retiring in December. Some people think that means I am done working. Not the case. I “retired” from St. Luke’s Health System in 2014 and I still worked. I worked temp jobs for the State of Idaho a couple years in a row after Luke’s and “retired” from those, and I am still working. I am old, so of course, I do not quit jobs, I “retire” in the eyes of others.
To be sure, I may be “retiring” from full time pastoral ministry, but I am not “retiring” from service to the LORD. Paul put that in perspective quite well in Colossians.
“Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically, as something done for the Lord and not for men, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.” [Colossians 3:23-24 HCSB]
As Christians, “whatever [we] do,” we do it as “done for the LORD.” We do it not to receive an earthly reward, such as a paycheck, but looking forward to that eternal reward in our inheritance in heaven.
And according to the Holman Christian Standard translation, we are to do it “enthusiastically.”
The Greek word means literally “do it from the soul,” and comes from a word meaning “the vital breath of life.”
“Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.” [Genesis 2:7 HCSB]
Whatever we do in service to the LORD, is to be done as if it is that vital breath of life given us by God! Enthusiastically, it is!
