apropos, given my meeting yesterday with my advisor

09/6/06
The Work of Faith
Jill Carattini

There are days when I wonder what it would be like to be a physician or aphoto journalist or a designer of advertisements. But these are almostalways days when I feel like I'm not cutting it as a writer. There areprobably men and women who feel they are always capable of the task beforethem. There are probably those who never feel as though the demands ofvocation and their supply of talent are at odds. There are perhaps even those among us who work and never grow weary--despite result or outcome. But I suspect many of us feel otherwise. No one ever tells you on careerday that the glove may fit, but the work of your hands may still cause calluses.

Over Labor Day weekend, I was reading about the making of the tabernacle. The instructions given to Moses were explicit, and excellence was clearly expected. "The work of a skilled craftsman" was demanded for everythingfrom the curtains and the woodwork to the oil and the incense. Much ofthe book of Exodus reads like an employee manual or a progress report inwhich "every skilled person to whom the LORD has given skill and ability"labors to do the work and completes each task just as the LORD commanded.

In a moment of defeat, it might make us feel all the more inadequate. Thework of skilled craftsmen appears everywhere. "For the entrance to thetent, they made a curtain of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and finelytwisted linen--the work of a fine embroiderer" (Exodus 36:37). "They madethe sacred anointing oil and the pure, fragrant incense--the work of aperfumer" (37:29). "They hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut strandsto be worked into the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen--thework of a skilled craftsman" (39:3). Everything they set out toaccomplish was completed exactly as the LORD commanded. There is noindication that the labor was easy, but the craftsmen of Israel walkedaway from their work knowing they had done well.

Hopefully there are days when this can be said of the work of our ownhands--that we are craftsmen accomplishing what God would have us toaccomplish, men and women using the skills and abilities God has given forthe tasks He has placed before us. But chances are this isn't always thecase. We may very well labor with the skills God has given, and yet bewithout the affirmation of any sort of accomplishment. We may even walkaway with a sense of defeat, the fatigue of callused hands, or thecomplaint of unclear instruction. Perhaps for good reason, it is notalways his way to make clear the weight of our labor.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul insists, "For we are God's fellowworkers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds" (1 Corinthians3:9-10). Our work is undergirded by a builder whose plans we don't yet see. Nonetheless, we are called to build. It is reminiscent of the line in C.S. Lewis's Perelanda: "One never can see, or not till long afterwards, why any one was selected for any job. And when one does, it is usually some reason that leaves no room for vanity. Certainly, it is never for what the man himself would have regarded as his chief qualifications."

Standing before the completed tabernacle, Moses inspected the work and saw that they had done it just as the LORD had commanded. So he blessed them and then set to work himself. When Moses finished everything God had instructed of him and all the labor was finished on the tabernacle, the completed work of the skilled craftsmen was transfigured by the arrival ofGod's glory: "Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory ofthe LORD filled the tabernacle" (Exodus 40:34). The work of our hands has no better end.

Jill Carattini is senior associate writer at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.