Years ago, I remember I would have said I wanted to own a tall ship, run it as a school. It would be the perfect balance of work and leisure. Sail the world in a majestic ship, introduce others to the world, education and the art of sailing. Hard work, but with meaning. Of course, tall ships aren’t cheap, so that’s a dream job I won’t see anytime soon!
Work is a complicated thing. Some people dream of never working again. Others dream of a certain kind of work.
Listen in on the GO train conversations, you’ll hear lots of complaining. But when asked in a scientific survey, 76% of all Canadian workers are either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘satisfied’ at work. We seem to have this love hate relationship with work. We’re not quite sure what to make of it.
Here’s a test: If you suddenly inherited enough money to retire, would you? Or would you take on your dream job? A lot of us would – lottery winners are often saying they’ll keep working, they’ll just change their attitude about work.
That’s our question to discuss today: If you suddenly inherited enough money to retire, would you stop working, or work differently?
Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest
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We introduced our Pioneer Story series with the story of Steve Jobs. This may be because I just watched the film “Jobs”, that chronicles his life from starting the Apple company in a garage, and growing it to what we know today.
There’s a scene where the filmmakers go to great pains to show a transformation in Steve. It’s the early days of Apple in a garage. He is angry, having found out his girlfriend is pregnant, and he’s told her to leave his life. He says it’s her problem, not his. We then find him enraged before a mirror, tucking in his shirt, tidying his hair. His face hardens.
The next few scenes are designed to show us he’s isolated, hardened and hyperfocused on his success as a businessman. His anger is driving him now. One of his former friends explains to another ,”Steve changed.”
This was not exactly a change to be copied in our own lives, that’s not why I tell the story! Steve Jobs accomplished great things, but at great cost. And the turning point, according to this film, was that day his girlfriend said she was pregnant.
We’re going to explore a life transformation this week, but one that was ultimately for the good of the entire world, and those who were transformed themselves. This was the transformation that happened in Jesus’ followers when they received the Holy Spirit.
With the resurrection of Jesus, they were transformed from terrified failures into emissaries on a mission. With the day of Pentecost, that we learned about last week, the Holy Spirit arrived and transformed them into confident speakers riskily challenging the status quo
We’re going to see how that kind of transformation can happen with us. We want to explore those times where people say someone changed, not becoming a hardened, ruthless person, but changing for the better.
Jesus still changes lives today, and it’s still up for debate among many whether that’s good or bad. People changed by Jesus are still disowned by families, shunned in workplaces, even killed in some places in the world. Following Jesus entails a transformation not to be taken lightly.
Question: Have you ever seen Jesus transform a life? What changed in that person? Was it for the better or worse, in your opinion? What did they do?
