The Danger of "Chilling Out"

I recently took on a new position at a production company in California. The job environment is positive and everybody is very friendly and encouraging - which is great. But there's one interesting thing about my job position - It is such that I am able to finish the vast majority of my work with a decent amount of time left over in the day. The job is challenging and hands on, but somewhat limited in the amount of work needed to be done. Now for some people, this would be a dream job... In fact, if given a similar work situation, some people would maybe stroll into work late and sneak out earlier than everybody else. While it has been tempting to "chill out" after finishing the daily tasks, I've been attempting to seek out other things that I could do to help out others with their work load. This has actually given me more daily tasks and allowed me to build a stronger relationship with my co-workers.

I can't help but apply this situation to my spiritual life. It's very easy to find myself going through the motions - sometimes thinking my "job description" as a Christian just entails going to church 3 times a week. Then after that, I can just "chill out" till the next assembly. This is definitely something Satan wants us to think. But truth is, there's a lot that CAN be done (outside of just going to church) that we as Christians should be doing.

In thinking about this, definitely one of the first passages of scripture that came to mind was something Paul wrote about in Colossians 3. He writes (in verse 23) "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men." This is similar to what the writer of Ecclesiastes writes in 9:10 ("Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might"). I also think about what James warns us about in his letter - (2:26) "Faith apart from works (deeds) is dead."

Truth of the matter is, there's so much work that can be done - it just comes down to asking yourself the question, "how much do I want/need to do?" It's important for us to work hard and aggressively in all areas of our life, but spiritually speaking, we have to make sure we're working our hardest and putting all our effort into serving the Lord.