On March 28th, I facilitated the NIFW women’s study to discuss the resource from Dr. Michaela O’Donnell, Make Work Matter. If you notice the date, it’s exactly 24 hours after the tragedy at Covenant School. I remember preparing for this class during commercials while I watched the news with tears in my eyes. I was waiting for updates on this unimaginable tragedy that directly impacted our friends, neighbors, and community.
I was grieving, working, and rehearsing hope.
I remember sitting at my kitchen table with the Zoom pulled up waiting for the class to start. I had my notes next to me, “Open with prayer for Covenant” scratched at the top of it. I knew we would start the class with prayer for the victims, their families, and the Covenant community, but honestly, past that, I didn’t have many words. I remember repeating the prayer, “Lord, come quickly” before I began the class. Grieving, working, and rehearsing hope – all of it existed at once.
As I was grieving, working, and rehearsing hope, multiple verses were on my mind:
Romans 12:15, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep”
Revelation 21:4, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away”
Psalm 34:18, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
For many of us, that is what the days after the tragedy included grief, work, and rehearsing hope. In our class that Tuesday, the question was raised of whether work really mattered in light of everything?
And as I sat with this question, I remembered the sacrament of communion. In my church, we have the rhythm of partaking in communion every week. Before taking communion, my pastor reminds us of why we do it – to remember and proclaim. He does so through the same rhythm and liturgy every week.
In the same rhythm every week, we recite the Lord’s Prayer and then we are led through the same liturgy,
“Let us proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died,
Christ is risen,
Christ will come again.
Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us.
Therefore, let us keep the feast.
The gifts of God for the people of God.”
We remember and proclaim. We rehearse hope. Not in a way that dismisses the grief, but in a way that reminds us that in the midst of the grief and suffering, God is present with us.
So the quick answer to the question of whether work matters is – yes. Yes, work matters. It matters to be present in our workplaces as a people who work, grieve, and rehearse hope. Longing for Christ’s return and remembering that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.
Yes, we keep working because we hold fast to the truth that work is one of the powerful ways in which we can join God in his mission of bringing hope and redemption into the world. God in his wisdom orchestrated for us to be in these roles, in this time, for these days.
We rehearse hope until Christ returns because we trust that death doesn't get the final say. Because we know that He will come again.
