I watched an awesome documentary about Mr. Rogers, Won’t you be my neighbor, a few weeks ago and was struck by how unique his life was. He initially wanted to become a minister, and went to school for it. However, instead of working full time in ministry, he took a job working to create a children’s television program that would become one of the most famous for the next several decades. He dedicated his life to serving God through his literal work. He said he felt called by God to do something better for children then slapstick comedy. He used his love of music, his talent for voices, and his creativity to create the Mr. Rogers show which by all regular tv standards should have failed but lasted over 30 years.
But what was most incredible to me about the documentary was Mr. Rogers’ philosophy for life- why would God have wanted him in the entertainment industry instead of working at the church anyway?
I’ve had a few pastors help me study through the Bible’s plan of redemption over the last few years, and it’s showed me how God thinks about the work we do. God had a clear plan of total redemption of the Earth that plays out over and over through scripture.
Jesus coming to Earth meant that we would have a way to right our standing with God since sin had entered the world. We had an option that would totally forgive our imperfections and give us access once again to a perfect God.
But Jesus didn’t simply come to Earth to allow us to be forgiven of our sins. He came to show us a new way of living. In his life, He healed not just people’s souls or emotional problems, but also their physical infirmities. He changed not only people’s lives, but also showed he could control and impact things like wind and rain. He called out and spoke against injustice and division. He challenged the need for more war to change cultural situations and instead refocused on a completely different thing- lives and cultures changed and redeemed in a way that humans had never seen and never done before.
His focus on Earth wasn’t just redemption of our souls, but also redemption of the world.
In Genesis, when sin entered the world, it wasn’t just our souls that were compromised. Genesis 3:16-19 explains that having children, marriage, the Earth, and our work were cursed because of sin in the Garden of Eden. Jesus didn’t completely redeem every broken aspect of life when he came to earth as many hoped he would. He gave examples of how to change things, and then left the disciples and the coming church with the expectation to continue to walk in his footsteps with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Basically, the church would work with God to change to the world. The Church would become the hands and feet of the work Jesus started here on earth. And that would mean some would work to redeem hearts, some would work to restore relationships, some would work to restore places ripe with injustice, some would work to restore physical environments, some would work to restore health, and some would work to restore and improve the culture. The world doesn’t get restored to God’s original intention unless we all use our God-given gifts for his purpose.
If we think of Jesus’ mission on earth to redeem hearts as well as cultures, then it’s obvious that God does care about the work we do each day. If God didn’t care about our lives on earth, we would immediately go to heaven when we got saved! But since we do not, I believe it implies He enjoys watching, encouraging, and helping us live out our time, our relationships, and our careers here on earth.
We are given the opportunity to use the gifts that God has given each of us to take back the ground that evil has stolen in our lives, in our fields, in our cultures, in our nations, and replace it with the all-encompassing redemption of Jesus Christ. Do you treat your day-to-day work like this? What do you think it would look like if you did?