Never Off Duty

 

“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

—Colossians 3:17

“Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will always—always—represent this organization. You are never off duty. You are always on call to help our customers in need. We expect you to have the mindset that you work for us 24 hours each day, 365 or 366 days each year. Most of the time, we will give you weekends off. But, if the need arises, we expect you to respond.”

That’s a little speech that I heard from the lips of Scott K. Goodwin during my four weeks of FIA Fire Safety Laboratory training way back in February of 1970. Scott was very serious about the role that fire protection engineers would play to meet the needs of the customers of the insurance company (Factory Insurance Association, later known as Industrial Risk Insurers) where I ultimately worked for 30 years.

Under normal circumstances, ours was a fairly routine job. But, when a fire occurred or a piece of fire protection equipment became impaired, we were expected to respond—no matter what time of the day or night.

Interestingly, when I became Director of Loss Prevention Training in 1989, I began using this same speech to all newly hired engineers. Truthfully, some young men and women did not want a job that placed such demands on their time. They didn’t last long in our ranks.

It would be very interesting today, with the mindset of most Millennials whom I observe, to see if they would even take a job that expected so much of them at the beginning of their careers.

In our lives as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we may not realize it as consciously as we should, but wherever we go and whatever we do, we represent the Lord Jesus. I am quite certain that the Apostle Paul recognized how important it was for the new Christians in Colosse to grasp this important truth. Notice what he writes to them in Colossians 3:17:

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

There are no exceptions. “Whatever you do” means exactly that. Yet, how many of us keep in the forefront of our mind the fact that day after day, month after month, year after year, in every situation we represent Christ?

The way we speak, the way we act, the things we read, the things we watch, the food we eat and drink, every aspect of our lives point to Jesus. Frankly, that’s a very uncomfortable truth.

But, think about it for a moment. Jesus sacrificed all of Himself on the cross to purchase our pardon from the sins we inherited from Adam and the sins we committed on our own. Having paid such a price for us, don’t we, in return, owe Jesus everything? I think we do.

So, as we begin another day, let’s remember that we represent the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. May the Holy Spirit continually nudge us so that every part of us will properly represent Christ—not in some straightjacket type of existence—but in the most cheerful and delightful way. Jesus paid it all. Let’s given Him our “all” in return.

 

_{Copyright © 2017 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}