Watchmen

Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD
who minister by night in the house of the LORD.
(Psalm 134:1 NLT)

Working third shift is no easy task. I've worked it for periods of time in my life, three years being the longest. It is hard to adjust to the less than normal sleep schedule and hard for others with more "normal" schedules to understand why you need to be sleeping. When I worked in a group home, it was my responsibility to clean the house and get things ready for the next day. That meant packing lunches, prepping dinner for the next evening, and making breakfast in the morning. There was a lot to do and the house was really QUIET, apart from the creaking floors and settling of the house at night. It was kind of scary to be alone in that house all night. It was also part of my responsibility to watch over the individuals sleeping to make sure they were alright, to send them back to bed when they got up in the middle of the night and to care for them when they were ill. One of the individuals who lived in the house had this life-sized Joe Paterno, the football coach for PennState. It was creepy on it's own in the daylight, let alone late at night in the dark. One night, I came around the corner and was uncomfortably surprised by a figure lurking in the darkness. I opened my mouth and just as I was going to let out a scream, I realized that the figure looking back at me was none other than the cardboard cut-out, Joe Paterno. (My boss thought it was funny to continually move him throughout the house) I made it a point to hide that thing the next night. Can you imagine working the night shift at the Temple of the Lord? There were things to be done, but most importantly, these servants acted as watchmen over the temple. They acted as protectors. They watched over the Temple and praised God in the darkness of the night. The did their tasks as an act of reverence to God and they honored him with the work that they did. It was difficult for me some mornings to be working in that house. If the night was difficult, and an individual was awake when they should have been sleeping, or they were ill, it was tough. I had to take the attitude that I was working in this house for God and I was acting as an instrument of love to people who often get overlooked because of their disabilities. I was often pushed to the edge of my patience and some mornings, I wasn't very lovely to them. For that, I am truly sorry. I can't ever take those moments back. Why don't you take a moment to ask yourself if you honor God with the work that you do. Are you serving him while you are working in the world? Are you doing your work to the best of your ability as an act of reverence to God? Are you loving those around you as Christ loves you?