Colossians 3:23

Some of us were taught, quietly, that ambition is carnal. That wanting to be excellent is pride in a suit. That the humble thing is to stay small and let the world have the top.
Scripture never taught that. We did.
"Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men." Proverbs 22:29. God wrote diligence into the path to the palace. Excellence is not a worldly value we borrowed. It is a kingdom value the world copied.
Look at the record.
Daniel was not merely faithful in Babylon. He was "ten times better" than every expert in the empire. Daniel 1:20. Joseph was not just a good slave. He was the best administrator in Potiphar's house, then in the prison, then in Egypt. Bezalel was filled with the Spirit specifically to be the finest craftsman in Israel. Exodus 31:3
None of them aimed low to look holy.
𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆. It is poor stewardship wearing humility's clothes. The servant who buried his talent and gave back exactly what he received was not praised for being modest. He was called wicked. Matthew 25:26
So yes. Aspire. Be the best in the room. Learn more than your peers. Ship better work. Take the hard problems nobody wants.
But watch the motive, because the same verse that sends you to kings can send you to idols.
𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 says: He gave me this, I will return it multiplied. 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗼𝗳 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 says: I will be seen, I will be first, I will be enough. Same output. Opposite altar.
The test is simple. When you are the best in the room, who gets the glory? Daniel interpreted the dream and said, "there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets." Daniel 2:28. The excellence pointed up.
Be ten times better. Then point up.
"Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord." Colossians 3:23. Heartily does not mean adequately.
#InNotOf #Faith #Excellence #Work

Let me start with an observation that rearranged something in me.

Moses met God while tending sheep. Exodus 3:1. Not in a tabernacle. There was no tabernacle yet. He was at work, on the back side of the desert, doing his father-in-law's job, when the bush caught fire.

Gideon was threshing wheat when the angel sat down under the oak. Judges 6:11. Mid-shift.

Elisha was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen when Elijah threw the mantle over him. 1 Kings 19:19. He was the twelfth man in a line of farmhands.

David was in the field with the sheep when Samuel came to anoint a king. His father didn't even think to call him in. 1 Samuel 16:11

Amos was a herdsman. Peter, Andrew, James and John were cleaning nets. Matthew was sitting at his tax booth, in the middle of a transaction, when Jesus said "follow me."

Go through the whole book and count. The burning bush is almost never in a sanctuary. It is in the workplace.

Now think about what we have done with that.

We built a wall. On one side, "ministry," where God lives and real spiritual work happens. On the other side, "secular," where we earn money and wait for Sunday. We taught ourselves that God is most present in the one place where, historically, He most rarely showed up for the first time.

The word secular is not in the Bible. It was never God's category. He made the dirt and called it good. He made man a gardener before He made him a worshipper, and the garden was the worship.

So when Paul wrote "whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord," Colossians 3:23, he was writing to slaves. Not ministers. People scrubbing floors and carrying water for masters who did not know God. And he told them that work was unto the Lord. Not a distraction from worship. The place of it.

Your spreadsheet is a field. Your codebase is a field. Your clinic, your classroom, your shop, your kitchen. The question was never whether God can be pleased there. The question is whether you expect Him there.

Because the men who met Him at work had one thing in common. They were faithful in the thing in front of them before the fire came. Moses kept the sheep. Gideon kept threshing. David kept watching. God does not interrupt idlers. He interrupts the diligent.

Tend what is in your hand. Keep your eyes open.

The bush could catch fire today, right where you're standing.

#InNotOf #Faith #Work #Kingdom