Today at the Diocesan Office I was asked to put together a computer cart for the new IONA School classroom. My typical work has consisted of writing various documents, and designing posters or flyers on the computer. I had not experienced the "down and dirty" work of the interning, but alas, I built a computer cart.
This experience got me thinking about what being a Christian is all about. Sure, we are called to be creative, and develop new ideas for ministry, but there is a second perspective to our calling as Baptized people: working with our hands.
It's a simple truth, really: We need to balance the two parts of our calling, that is our calling to work with our minds and our calling to work with our hands. Whether it is providing water to the community when they visit the local recycling depot (a ministry that my own Parish participates in), or bringing the past Sunday's Altar flowers to a person in the hospital, or perhaps the simple act of holding the door open for another person, we are called to do, not just to think.
Even though working with your hands may not be the most common activity in your life, and you prefer to work with your mind, remember that we are called to both. Christ calls us to work with our hands.
"So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (James 2:17)
As the book of James says, our faith is nothing without a little work behind it. Maybe it isn't a computer cart, but who knows? God might surprise you with a more "down and dirty" kind of work that you weren't expecting.
The MObile Cart was a "Wax On, Wax Off" kind of job. Just like in the Karate kid the meaning and lesson will come later in the story.
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