Penguin Sex

...is a chapter title in Blue Like Jazz, but really I just couldn't think of a good title for this post. Sorry, this post has nothing to do with sex or penguins or why these animals never wait til marriage to have it. This post is about some wise words that were said to me recently (by Greg Martin and Derek Webb) regarding an all too common mentality Christians have.

It is easy for myself and other Christians to have this mentality: "I don't need to work extremely hard at something because my identity is not in my performance or my work....it's in the Gospel." In other words, this mentality is expressed "I can do a sub-par job at whatever it is I do because I'm a Christian" or "because there are things more important to me in life, it's OK to do cruddy work at my current job." All the while, we're trying to be a good witness to the world we live in.

We think if we do a normal everyday job, then we better be witnessing to everyone since we didn't do the more holy thing and become a missionary. You don't have to tape Bible verses to pieces of plumbing to justify being both a plumber and a Christian. You do your work with excellence and let that speak to your worldview. It's when you do your job with excellence that people respect what you have to say. When you're a lousy worker, it disparages your witness. If anything, Christians should be the best workers because we work diligently unto the LORD and not just because our bosses will chastise us if we don't.