Responsibility is a Blessing

This Wednesday I ended my week-long quarantine for COVID-19. It wasn’t terrible. It was basically a “staycation.” My thoughts going into the quarantine were, “Wow! I’m going to get so much done with all the free time I have!” Those expectations were unrealistic. While I was somewhat productive, I was surprisingly unmotivated. I slept more than I usually do, watched more TV, and struggled with laziness in a way that I usually don’t. The decrease of responsibility led to less fruitful, not more.

The Lord used this time to show me that responsibility is a blessing. When we think of how we want to spend our time, we might dream of situations when we have little responsibility—like vacation and retirement. Yes, rest and ease are blessings from God. They are essential for our wellbeing. Too much responsibility can lead to burnout. But, rest and ease can consume our focus. We might incorrectly believe that God made us for rest and not for work. We might forget that responsibility leads to fruitfulness.

God commands us that “whatever we do,” we are to “work heartily unto the Lord” (Col 3:23). To work heartily means to pursue and execute on responsibility, not run from it. Yes, responsibility brings stress, deadlines, sleepless nights, and early mornings. Too much of this can be a bad thing. But too little of it leads to laziness, slothfulness, and purposelessness.

The moral of the story is this. Responsibility is a blessing from God. Don’t shirk it. God uses it to produce fruitfulness in and through us. Pursue responsibility so that you might be fruitful.

Pastor Chance