Magnum Opus, is a Latin phrase meaning 'masterpiece,' or 'a person's greatest work.' This phrase found its way into one of my morning devotions a while ago and hasn't left my mind since. I have done a lot of thinking about my 'greatest work' or even just my work in general.
When we are young, we are constantly asked what we want to be when we grow up. The older we get, more and more pressure is put on that question, except now, instead of asking what we want to be, we are asked what we are going to do. What are we going to do to pay the bills and make a living? Work quickly becomes about survival.
Once we are in college and certainly after college, what it is we want to do or are doing is an introductory identifier of who we are. "Hi, I'm Rachel and I work in sales." Our work becomes our identity.
Work as survival and our work being who we are is natural. But it is not Biblical. I want to share with you a different way to view work.
In the Garden, our work was intended to be creation. Our work was never meant to define us, rather we were meant to define our work. We tend to place our personal value and worth in our work. "If I am not successful I am nothing," we tell ourselves. But this is a lie. The reality is that our beauty, our worth, and our value lie simply in our being God's creation. We are God's Magnum Opus!
We are God's greatest work, his masterpiece; and we were created for his pleasure. God is the one who affirms our work. Not your co-workers opinions, not the praise from your boss, not that random person on social media, and certainly not the paycheck you bring home. "When we work to please God, it is not work, but surrender," (unknown). Surrender to the Creator. Once you do, the work of your hands becomes a partnership with God. Can you believe that?! A PARTNERSHIP with Yahweh God. God who created the Heavens and the Earth, who created you and me, He wants to invest in our work!
As a creative, it can be really easy to slip into the lie that this is not a career. That creating will not be sustainable long term. The scary part though, I'm sure you can repeat that sentence and switch creative out with whatever it is you are passionate about or do for a living and feel the same lies to be true. Or maybe you believed the lies long enough and are therefore, now doing something that will simply "pay the bills."
We were created for more than just paying the bills and gaining approval from strangers (strangers meaning anyone who doesn't know you deeply). "Your work is worship," God told me. "You can create, because I am your partner and I will create through you." Whatever it is we do, that is how God interacts with the world.
Jesus is the CEO. We are His apprentices. Our work is his mastery. Our Magnum Opus is His Magnum Opus.
"Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long... God will instruct us in the way He chooses." Psalm 25:4-5, 12b
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