When I was in high school, I got my first job as an ice cream scooper at my church. We had an ice cream hut and café where the church and the surrounding community connected over soup, sandwiches and delicious treats. I learned a lot about customer service and the extensive ice cream flavors available in our great country. However, the most important lesson came from the name of the café: Avodah Café.
Avodah is a Hebrew word meaning "work, worship, and service".* It’s all connected. Worship isn’t just a Sunday morning experience, although weekly gatherings as the Body of Christ are important. Worship isn’t just music and singing, although these activities are great tools for connecting with God and learning biblical truths. A lifestyle of worship is lived in between Sundays... a kind word to a stranger, a meal cooked for a new mom, a job well done from 9 to 5.
Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV) says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
My prayer for us today and always is, “God, let everything we do and say be for Your Glory! May our worship permeate our everyday lives... our work, our words, and our service.”