Pray Without Ceasing: Make Your Work a Prayer

One Bible verse that really bothered me for a lot of years was I Thessalonians 5:17.
In I Thessalonians, Paul is instructing the faithful in Thessalonica about what to do and how to behave as they wait for the Lord’s coming. In verse 17, he tells them to, “Pray without ceasing.â€? For a long time I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that it was possible to obey this scriptural command â€" or even come close. As humans, we all have to survive, and that means eating, sleeping, and working - in order to have food to eat and a place to sleep. We just can’t be hanging around praying 24/7!

Several years ago, a friend opened my eyes to the fact that I was being too restrictive in my idea of prayer, by thinking of it as an exclusively sedentary thing. Prayer is simply uniting ourselves to God as closely as possible in any situation.

If you think about the way you pray, at times when you’re focusing only on prayer and nothing else, you’ll see what I mean. Is kneeling sometimes a part of your prayer? Folding your hands? How about the tone of your voice or the fact that your eyes are closed? Of course we would answer “yes“ to all these things. When you form the words and sentences that make up your prayer you’re using your intellect, right? So it’s apparent that we’re already using our God â€"given spirits, intellects and bodies in prayer.

So, if you’re doing honest work, (and if you’re not â€" please get another job!), your work; physical or intellectual, when offered to God, is a part of your unceasing daily prayer. Begin each day by offering you work to God as a gift, then make your work a worthy offering to Him. This means simply doing your best, for Him, in the office, at home, and in volunteer positions with charities or at church.

One of the many wonderful gifts Our Lord gave to the society of his day, which is an enduring legacy of Christian culture, is that He ennobled the concept of work. The culture of His day truly despised the idea of labor and considered work demeaning. In the Roman Empire of Jesus’ day, in which slaves far outnumbered their masters, it was easy to live out this philosophy, and the Romans did for many generations. Jesus turned the idea of the “lowly laborerâ€? on its head â€" as he did so many other ideas of his time. He was, after all, known as the “carpenter’s son,â€? although He was the master of everyone He worked for or with. The life He chose to live during most of His years on earth, far outnumbering His years of what we often call His “ministryâ€?, were His years working as his father’s assistant in the family business, the carpenter’s shop. He was able to live out his perfectly lived human life for many years, first as an apprentice to His father and later as a skilled carpenter. He was doing His Father’s will in completing the small details of His work with perfection - setting the example for our life of work today.
It is especially meaningful to me that His work wasn’t outwardly dramatic or unusual at this stage in His earthly life. Let’s face it: most of us are called to be heroic in the small details and challenges of each ordinary moment, not in the exciting and dramatic settings we often mistakenly think of as a necessary venue for courage. God places eternal value on our “widow’s mite� offerings of excellence: cleaning a floor to perfection; patiently moderating a dispute at between colleagues at work; willing ourselves not to hit the “snooze� button; choosing to complete a job well, despite being tired.

What kind of laborer do you think Our Lord was? Do you think that He arrived at work on time and did His best everyday? Do you think He swept the shop neatly at the end of the day and cared for His tools? Were His orders completed perfectly and on time? Did He take time to consider the type of wood He would use for a particular project and in-form himself of the best techniques which would help Him to make the best and most productive use of His time? Did He lovingly seek a just solution to any dispute? Was He a cheerful and welcoming presence to all who entered His shop?

Let’s ask ourselves the same questions about our own work and strive to make our labor honorable and excellent - a worthy prayer and gift to Him who gave us our bodies, minds and souls. As we do so, our work days will become exciting adventures. Even the difficulties we encounter and work through will be part of our offering to Him. Our work will take on a new meaning and our days of labor will be filled with joy and peace in the knowledge that we’re offering the spiritual, intellectual and physical challenges and triumphs of each day â€" big and small- as a prayer to our Lord.

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