May 13

Working with Excellence

1 Kings 6:7 In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

Throughout our reading today we discover the excellence of work. These artisans were masterful in skill and did all of their work with excellence. What a contrast that is to the work ethic of our culture. If you ask people today, “What is work”, the preponderance of responses will be negative in tone. Many people use phrases such as “a bummer,” “what I have to do for money,” or “the only way to get to Friday” to describe their feelings about work. Even Christians sometimes reference the fall as support of their view that labor is nothing but a curse.
But that view is completely at odds with the scriptural worldview. Work flows out of the heart of God. God worked six days to bring this world into existence. He stamped his own fingerprint on everything he did in his work. And at the end of each day he said, “It is good.” God does all his work with excellence.
Work was part of the world before the “fall.” It is a place where we get to imitate God and stamp our fingerprint on the world. It is designed to be a source of joy so fulfilling and wonderful that the Lord deemed it necessary to give us the fourth commandment in order to insure that we would set our work aside and rest at least one day a week! Because God did all his work with excellence, we should follow his lead.

A few years ago I came across this interesting thought:

What Does 99.9% Quality Means?

In the U.S.A., it would mean:
· One hour of unsafe drinking water per month
· Two unsafe landings at O’Hare Airport each day
· 16,000 lost pieces of mail per hour
· 20, 000 incorrect drug prescriptions each year
· 500 incorrect surgical operations performed each week
· 19,000 newborn babies dropped at birth by doctors each year
· 22,000 checks deducted from the wrong account each hour
· Your heart fails to beat 32,000 times each year

1 Cor. 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.