God Is Always Worthy of Our Time

Today’s reading: Exodus 6:5-9

The Pharaoh’s spirit in today’s reading is still in control of our society. It’s on display every week at convenience stores near most churches, in fact. I’ve encouraged many troubled clerks over the years to begin getting involved in a church. The common response is something like this:  “I can’t. I work every Sunday.”

And I sometimes wonder if several of the talented young singers people in my own church’s choir would be performing every week if the church did not pay them to be there.

God is not the priority in our society. Money is. People will do anything for it — including work double shifts on Sundays when their spirits would be more at ease in worship.

I’m thinking of the time a few years ago when I wanted to join my wife out of town at a Thanksgiving gathering with her family, but I was scheduled to work at my job at a college on the day she would have to leave.  I knew that the college would be very slow that day, and my services would not likely be in much demand. So I asked my supervisor to give me the day off. She refused.

I considered calling in “sick,” but decided that would be dishonest. I missed the gathering and dutifully showed up at my job. As I predicted, the center where I worked did not have one visitor or phone call for my entire 8 hour shift. No one would have missed the place had it been closed that day.  Another employee and I spent the day reading magazines and joking that we should lock up early.

Two weeks later, the supervisor decided her budget wouldn’t allow her to keep me on the staff. I was unceremoniously, and quite unexpectedly,  laid off (despite stellar reviews from all who knew my work). There was no acknowledgement of my Thanksgiving sacrifice, of course. It’s clear that I should have attended the gathering.

I have a dear friend (who I have written about anonymously in these devotionals several times before) who suffers many spiritual woes and would benefit greatly from hearing a weekly sermon and experiencing some loving, Christian fellowship. But he feels much loyalty to his dawn-to-dusk job on Sundays and cannot be convinced to take time away from that for church. His case is far from isolated.

As I contemplate all of this I’m noticing something alarming. It’s in this verse: 5:9 “Let heavier work be laid on them; then they will labor at it and pay no attention to deceptive words.” (Verse 9)

The Pharoah orders bosses to lay heavier burdens upon the people in order to condition them to do more work.  And the testimony I’ve just written shows that his plan worked. Centuries later, it is we who are laying heavy burdens upon ourselves. We don’t have to “work” as much as we do. We just think we do.

Thanks be to God for being with me always.