Korean American Christian Blog

Tim Keller from Redeemer Church says, 

"When we do work,

We need to look to ourselves

(see what our gifts are),

We need to look out to others

(see how we can positively affect others),

We need to look up to God

(see his purpose)." 

Look in, look out, look up.

People get stress and unhappy while working thus,
We need rest like God rested on sabbath.
By rest, it is also meant as spiritual rest. Deep rest.
Phyiscal rest of course, And also rest that comes from laying our burdens at gods feet.

Madonna needs another hit song to feel relevant again.
She looks in and looks out but not up.

Jazz musician Coltrane after a brilliant performance said he can essentially leave the world in peace because he had done what he was meant to do.
Unlike Madonna, he looked in and looked out AND up.

Coltrane found meaning and didn't have the need to feel relevant when he saw Gods purpose and saw he had fulfilled it.

"When we do not look up to God in our work, our work will always be about us."

Our artistic works or acts of altruism through our careers will always be about us.
It is when we look at God that we can enjoy work in it's simplest form. We can work even in the most menial tasks because we can see perfect hope and perfect glory in the Almighty One and in the ultimate purpose.

This purpose includes us and is in the eternal. Looking up constantly reminds us this life is ephemeral and minimizes the importance of self-acclaim and power here in this life. This perspective grants us the permission to take our eyes off of our life and our work, and be satisfied in others lives and his work. It is at that moment, we can be at peace with our work, who we are, and why we are here.

It is at that moment when we can not only receive this peace but also discover a hunger for something greater and something grander in this world and from this life, because now our eyes are correctly placed on the spiritual world and the after life.