Practical work is holy work
Blessed are the unimportant and overlooked
I love how the first person in the Bible described as “filled with the Spirit of God” was not a prophet, priest, or king, but a craftsman. God’s spirit filled Bezalel (Exodus 31:3) to equip him for the work of building the tabernacle. We tend to focus on the esoteric or heady side a lot, but let’s not forget that the Spirit can work through our gifts even if they don’t feel particularly holy. Prophets, priests, & kings don’t have the market cornered on spirituality. Practical work is also holy work.
In Jesus’ sermon on the Mount, he begins teaching about the kingdom of heaven by making some surprising declarations about who is blessed and to whom the kingdom of heaven belongs1:
The poor in spirit
Those who mourn
The gentle
Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness
The merciful
The pure in heart
The peacemakers
Those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness
The insulted, persecuted and falsely accused
Sometimes familiar Scriptures like this can become so familiar that we tend to glaze over these terms and miss how shocking these claims really are, but let’s take a look at the list again. Do we really believe that these are the ones called blessed by God? The2–
lowly in status both materially and in society
ones grieving loss
unimportant and overlooked
ones who hunger and thirst for right-relationships that are missing in the world
ones who show mercy
pure in heart ones, not having selfish intentions
those who work for peace even when faced with opposition
ones who are persecuted on account of doing what is right
ones who face insults, and are persecuted and lied about because of their faith
It’s amazing how many of the things we seek in our modern society are the same temptations that faced those in the time of Jesus. His words were countercultural then, and they are countercultural now. We don’t want to be lowly, persecuted, or in mourning; we want to be victorious, we want to be recognized, we want to feel special!
Blessed work
With this mentality, it’s easy to view certain kinds of work, especially very public work, as more holy or more important than other vocations. It’s easy for me to look at people with a platform or a “glamorous” job as more blessed, more special to God than me in my day-to-day life as a mother, wife, friend, volunteer, writer, and neighbor. In recent years I’ve dug deeply into the world of advocacy and the intersection of faith and public policy. I’ve gotten an up close look at the world of social media platforms and the glitter that appears to be associated with that work. Surprisingly, amid all the algorithms and the trends and the likes, the theme that continues rising to the top for me is the crucial importance of our presence over our platform. Yes, there is a lot of importance and impact from listening to experts at the national level and in leveraging the privileges we have for the benefit of our neighbors, calling those with power to account. But more and more I am coming to believe that culture change doesn’t happen from a stage but in living rooms and around dinner tables.
I do not mean to diminish those who are called to bigger stages, because their work is also practical, holy, and necessary. But I am recognizing that the unseen work of those engaging their local communities is just as essential to peacemaking work. If you have never been on a stage speaking to a crowd or have never been on the Hill visiting senators, but you are doing the hard, unromantic work of talking to your friends and relatives about kingdom peace, you are doing blessed work, friend.
So if you, too, find yourself in a place in life where you feel like the work you’ve been called to do feels a bit unglamorous, I hope you remember Bezalel, who didn’t speak a word in Scripture but got his hands dirty making a beautiful tabernacle for his God. What more could we ask for?
Free Resource
Sometimes practical work is the unglamorous (and maybe a little boring) work of showing up in our communities, voting, and speaking up when things are going wrong. It’s easy to get put off by politics, but where will we end up if we leave all of the decisions about how our society operates to those with the most extreme views? There’s a danger in political idolatry that drowns out other priorities in our lives, and there is also a danger in political apathy, when we are so consumed with our own mental (or relational) comfort that we don’t engage in seeking solutions to the issues that harm our neighbors. The last few months, my colleagues and I at We Welcome have been working on a new resource all about balancing that tension between allowing politics to become an idol and being apathetic and disengaged. Our Seeking the Peace guide is now available for free download on our website — check it out!
From Matthew 5:4-11, New American Standard Bible 2020
Adapted from The Bible Project translation of the Beatitudes. Explore deeper: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/the-beatitudes
“more and more I am coming to believe that culture change doesn’t happen from a stage but in living rooms and around dinner tables.”
Thought provoking.