CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – If you were to meet me in person, you’d immediately think of me as Chris Conley, the radio guy. Most of you know me as the person who reads the news in the morning, and does commentary on the issues of the day.
But surely I am more than that.
You don’t know me as a father to my four children, or as a loving son to my parents. You may not think of me as ‘dog lover’ or ‘model train builder’.
Yet, we most often define people by their employment. “What do you do?” is usually one of the first things we ask when we meet someone new. And their answer, “doctor” for instance, usually shapes how we define them in our minds.
People who are retired, or disabled, or unemployed often think of themselves as less-than because they aren’t being productive. We self-define based on what we do.
I assure you that this is self-deception.
I know one person who is retired, and devotes almost all of their time to charities that they care about. I’d suggest to you that they are more now than when they were working. I know someone who is disabled; they’re not able to work. And they are kind, and generous, and can say ‘yes’ to many favors because they’re not burdened by a job. And there is no one who was more moving towards me than my late grandmother. She’d never had a job during my life. Her love nurtured and formed me into who I am today. And she was certainly much more than a do-er of laundry, or a preparer of meals, or a keeper of a house.
Do not cheapen yourself by falling into a trap that you are what you do for a living.
God tells us that we have value and worth just because we are. Scripture tells us we are created in His image, and that makes us holy. That is infinitely more than the product of our labor.
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand. Let us walk in them.”
Chris Conley
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