This long Good weekend

A staff at a local supermarket complained to me today about potatoes.

Rotten potatoes, to be exact. Rotten potatoes, and their abysmal working conditions, which in my work-exhausted employee brain sounded as common as mynah birds.

The issues the worker shared with me included:

• No overtime pay
• Worked at the supermarket for 7 years and just made minimum wage
• Overworked
• Having to deal with customer complaints while the supervisors and managers pretend not to hear.
• Managers and supervisors get yearly bonuses but not normal workers.
• Normal workers are promised a pay rise every year but it never happens.
• The company does not pay for medical bills for employees injured at work. He himself was injured at work and required hospitalisation but the company never compensated him.

He’s also about middle age and is beyond exhausted.

I feel sorry for him. And I understand his frustrations for I face similar issues at my own workplace.

It’s a sad, unfair, and universal fact: employers will take advantage of their employees one way or another.

Have you watched the animated YouTube shorts featuring a character called Veronika? She is what I wish I was at work.

I was surprised when I first watched one of the animated shorts because it was based in the USA, and until then I’d always thought that American workers had better work conditions than the rest of the world, or at least better than Fiji. I never expected a US employee to face the same workplace issues that we do here because work contracts are supposed to be better there.

But, alas, it isn’t the case. While normal US workers get paid what a manager might get here, the problems are the same. HR and the company is not on your side.

I thought about what that supermarket worker shared with me, and I thought about what we are celebrating this long Easter weekend here in Fiji, and I thought did Jesus die for this?

Is this why Jesus came to die for on the cross? This unfair life of an ordinary worker, trying to support his family, and wants to be paid fairly for his loyalty to the company?

Surely that kind of loyalty should be recognised, and rewarded?

Working for the Glory of God?

As I sit here thinking about what happened today, I’m reminded of what Paul wrote to the Colossians about being loyal.

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but in sincerity of heart, fearing God. And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.

Colossians 3:22-24 NKJV

Reading this verse again now, it seems to me that while Paul was talking to servants who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn’t say that the ‘masters’ or employers are Christians.

Which means that workers or slaves in Paul’s day, who were Christians sometimes worked for non-Christian masters or employers.

My employers are not Christians, nor are the owners of that local supermarket. Could Paul’s words apply to us?

Yes, it very well could. But it does take a shift in our thinking, doesn’t it?

Especially, when we’ve worked under troubling conditions for so long but cannot leave because things are not better anywhere else.

How then should we work?

I don’t know what that man’s relationship with the Lord Jesus is like, or whether he actually has one. All I did when he was talking was commiserate with him. And I don’t know whether he told me that so I could do something, or whether he simply wanted a listening and sympathetic ear. I don’t know.

What I do know is as an employed person it has taken me years, about two decades actually, to make peace with myself about my day job.

I made a few decisions after I turned fifty last year, and found myself stuck, and earning the same wage for the past five years. I decided that I will not work overtime again, unless I’m assured of being paid those extra hours. And, instead of making my employer’s mercurial moods my responsibility, I pray for God’s peace to flood my soul.

Something that helped me a lot was praying this prayer to break any soul ties forged between me and my employers. I could see visible changes in how my employer interacted with me after praying for all soul ties to be broken between us.

It was as if a dark filter was removed from my eyes, and I saw them for what they really are. Mean, miserly and miserable. I pity them. And I have come to realise that they are adults, and are responsible for their own lives, this one and the next.

For we serve the Lord Christ

It’s not easy to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and work for someone who isn’t. I’ve found that some days can be like being in a war. And I do realise that we are in a spiritual warfare, and it’s an expected thing for us Christians, but sometimes it can get overwhelming.

I’m an introvert, and many things can overwhelm me, which is why I’m grateful for all the prayers the Lord God has gently led me to know and pray.

I disagree with the belief or sentiment that Christians should never have a bad day, or cannot possibly have the same problems everyone else has.

I think being a Christian does not make us immune to the every-dayness of life. For we are still living here on earth, breathing the same air, and we do live, and work, with people, and with all the different personalities, and opinions, and background, and outlook, and perspectives.

I think we’re called to use the situations and circumstances of our daily lives to work out our faith. And hopefully grow in faith, and wisdom and understanding.

And ultimately, be conformed to our Lord Jesus Christ as we serve Him wherever we are, no matter who our supervisors, or managers, or employers are.

This long Good weekend

It’s Easter Saturday as I write this. Right now, the war between Israel and Iran threatens the cost of fuel, and directly affects the delivery and distribution of necessities. And like all wars, it has killed so many people.

That’s a different level of servant-master and master-servant dynamic.

I wonder if the followers of Christ, if any, who perished, truly thought they were fighting well for the Lord Jesus, or if they were fighting only for their country.

Or as a Christian, does fighting for your country automatically means you are fighting for the Lord Jesus?

But that’s just it, isn’t it? That’s what Paul was talking about: doing everything to the Glory of God.

Whatever we do, as believers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to do it for God’s Glory.

Wew, that’s tough and scary because it means changing our perspective of our lives from our own selves, our comfort, our wages, and work conditions, and how we’re not recognised for the hard work we do, and we’re not paid overtime, or we’re not compensated for at-work injuries, we move beyond all that, and move inward, into a deeper place where we sense Him.

Where we glimpse His shadow, and feel the comfort of His wings. Where in the midst of another pressure-filled work day or just any day, we are carried through in His peace.

This is my sustenance. He sustains me. And I know that if that supermarket worker believes in the Lord Jesus, He would sustain him as well, and He will do the same for anyone who comes to Him.

Nor matter how ordinary or complex the issues we face, whether the plight of an ordinary worker, or the sacrifice of a soldier in a war, our hope is in Jesus Christ alone.

This long weekend is the celebration of His death on the cross. And far more importantly, of His resurrection.

Maranatha.