Coming Home From Work
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For many a man, when he comes home from work, it is a challenge to fully enter into the activities of family life. The wife wants to share her day and hear about his. The children want to play or need discipline. Then there's the meal, the baths, and the various activities, errands, and chores. And with all that, there may be strife and tension. Being tired, he wants to rest. Rather than serving his family, he'd like to be served, or at least be left alone in order to decompress.

But if the man names Jesus as Lord, he is not free to do his own thing after he gets off work. His responsibility to do the will of God continues twenty-four hours a day. This truth is illustrated in the story Jesus told in Luke 17:7-10 (NASV):

But which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him, when he has come in from the field, "Come immediately and sit down to eat"? But will he not say to him, "Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me until I have eaten and drunk; and afterward you will eat and drink"? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, "We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done."

While the story can evoke an austere picture, when a man puts away his resistance to being fully available and engaged, and commits himself by faith to serve in love, he finds that life at home becomes very rewarding. God empowers him with new strength, because he is stepping out in faith to do God's word. Also, the problems that were caused by his former absence (in spirit, if not in body) begin to evaporate. His wife is encouraged by his presence and participation, and many of the burdens weighing down her soul are lifted. The children are positively responsive, and things are more in order.

And, just as in the story, he does still get to "eat and drink." His desires and needs do get tended to. There is more real peace, which is what most men desire at home. And he is more appreciated, respected, and even cared for by his wife and family. It is a truism that one cannot out-give God, and that undoubtedly holds true when a man gives all of himself for his wife and family.

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