Whatever task they’re doing, ants never see their work as menial or beneath their dignity. Whether it’s moving dirt or carrying bread crumbs, they merrily go along doing their job. We can often be disappointed in the work we’re doing, or think that we deserve something better. Maybe we want to be leading worship in church, but instead, we’re stuck putting the chairs out. Maybe we want to be a supervisor in our workplace, but we’re stuck doing the boring admin. But really, all work, whatever it involves, can and should be done for God’s glory, not our own (take a look at 1 Corinthians 10:31). Proverbs 14:23 says ‘in all labour there is profit’ (NKJV). Whatever job we’re being asked to do, there’ll be something we can learn from it – something God’s trying to teach us through it. Perhaps while we’re putting the chairs out, God’s teaching us patience. Maybe while we’re ploughing through piles of admin and paperwork, God’s developing our attention to detail. These might be qualities we need to carry out God’s big plan for our life. The word ‘vocation’ comes from the Latin word vocare, which means ‘to call’. So every job or vocation, regardless of what it is, is a calling from God. Dr Martin Luther King Jr said: ‘Not all men are called to specialised or professional jobs; even fewer to the heights of genius in the arts and sciences; many are called to be labourers in factories, fields, and streets. But no work is insignificant.’ Whatever work God’s called us to do, we can be sure that it has value, even if we can’t see it immediately.
