I have been a scuba diver for many years and have gone on hundreds of dives across North America. Three have been environmental rescue dives. I visited sites in crisis and worked with teams of volunteers to ensure the local ecology remains protected. I have no doubt God was pleased with my work in service to his Creation. Yet I am equally certain God is pleased by my work as an artist creating robot-themed lamps out of electrical conduits. I experience God’s pleasure while creating weird housewares, just as I do while scraping mollusks off underwater rock formations.
How can this be? How can two totally different pursuits—one selfless and one frivolous—both serve as portals to God’s pleasure?
There is no actual boundary between godly work and good work. The fact that we see ourselves in cooperation with God, regardless of what, specifically, we’re doing, helps us understand that God’s project of ongoing Creation is as varied as it is large.
Adapted from Then. Now. Next.: A Biblical vision of the church, the kingdom, and the future.