Do It For Me

A few years ago when I was home by myself, I was working on laundry.  I did not like doing laundry, and I had a particularly bad attitude about it that day.  As I took clothes out of the dryer, I was grumbling and complaining that I did not want to do this, and I hated laundry.  I was the only one home so no one could hear all my negativity.  No one except God, that is.

"Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart; do it for Me and not for men."

I heard these words very plainly and very clearly.  I don't know how to explain it.  It was not an audible sound, but I heard it all the same.   It was definitely a voice, and it was not my own.

Three things about this really jumped out at me.  The first thing is that I am never alone.  God is always with me. Even though I cannot see him,  He is always with me.  Even as I do laundry.  I remember having the thought that if these were Jesus's pants, I probably wouldn't mind so much.

The other thing that really struck me was the actual verse.  Although I had heard this verse before, it was definitely NOT one I had committed to memory.  What I heard was Scripture.  Word for word Scripture.  I had to look it up to know where to find it.  I had a hard time finding it at first.  I had looked up the phrase "Do it for me."  My search came back with no results.  When I found it, I smiled.  Colossians 3:23 says "...do it as for the LORD."  But what I had heard was "Do it for me." (I know some of you Bibilical scholars caught that the first time!)

Does this mean it wasn't really Scripture?  Quite the opposite in my opinion.  When God speaks, He can refer to himself in the first person.  It would be pretty stilted and awkward if He used anything other than that.  Also, I noticed that He doesn't have to cite chapter and verse when He speaks; they are His words, after all.

The last thing I took away from this experience is how this verse was used.  I had always heard it in reference to careers.  It doesn't matter if you are a minister, a teacher, a carpenter, or a truck driver as long as you represent God well through your work.  I had never thought before that "whatever you do" meant laundry too.  Everything we do, even laundry and other mundane chores, is to be done for the LORD.  Everything.

I still don't love doing laundry.  But when I catch myself starting to grumble about it, I remind myself that I was doing laundry the first time I ever heard God speak to me.  And I can do this too in service to Him.