We are now in a devotional journey focused around portions of Carl E. Braaten’s book “Justification.”
A large percentage of people are bored with their work, weary under the yoke of a job they hate. The Christian experience of the forgiveness of sins can transform a job into a calling. The prosaic present may be transformed into a sacred moment, when we experience the forgiveness of sins while doing our duty and meeting our obligations. We can praise and worship God in and through our work. We can give ourselves wholeheartedly to the work at hand, without expecting to derive our ultimate meaning and joy from the achievements of our labor.
Forgiveness frees us for the day at hand since we do not have to carry the baggage of the past with us into every activity and personal encounter of the day. I find that the focus of a meeting or an activity changes when I bring my unresolved issues with me into this day. Forgiveness calls for the bags to be dropped and my attention can be placed in this place and time. The notion of our jobs being transformed into a calling takes place because this present moment is new and what we enter is a moment in which we are free to engage those around us with a sense of wholeness and freedom – I do not need to use all my energy dragging myself and others into my unforgiving past and also try to attend to the events of this day.
Connection: It is so important to remind one another to step into the present - forgiven. Then we begin to be a part of the shape of a New day.
Grant us the peace of this day that comes from the renewal of our lives through the power of your forgiveness. By you grace we know of the possibility of new life and we need your Spirit to pull us into its reality. Amen.
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