One of the amazing discoveries about ourselves is how much "what we do" is related to "who we are." Often when others think of us it is in terms of our special skills or occupation. The value of our personhood is often set by the quality of our workmanship. People have a tendency to evaluate us in terms of our working performance. To a great extent, our self-image is built around what we do and how well we do it. This has both a positive and negative connotation.

On the positive side, it develops within us an ambition to do our best. We take pride in our assigned task as we cultivate a healthy work ethic. We sense the value of paying our own way and pulling our own load. We develop a caring attitude in the way we relate our work to the progress of society. We grow to feel good about ourselves when we can see the call of God in our daily chores.

On the negative side, however, there is a danger in finding our total self-esteem only in what we do. If our worth is measured only by our work, what value do we have when we no longer can work? There must be more to us than a job description. We will soon outlive our usefulness if production is the only word that defines us. There is deeper meaning to "who we are" than "what we do." We derive our worth from a creator God who looked upon what He had made and called it good. We thank Him for the creativity of our minds and the productivity of our hand, but we also praise Him for instilling His image within us. We are equipped to receive His Holy Spirit, to think His thoughts after Him, and to have fellowship with our heavenly Father.

We must not ignore these God-given attributes in the development of our self-understanding. What we do and how well we do it are certainly important to our self-image. Yet, who we are, Whose we are, and how we got to where we are must be given strong consideration. To be known only by what we do is a limited definition of our total personhood. Becoming a workaholic does not excuse us from experiencing the deeper things of life.

God help us to be able to lay down our work and rest in the knowledge that we have other sources of worth. We will have no peace or rest until we are willing to let God be God instead of making work our god. As we labor for the Master we find self-worth in being as well as in doing.