Cole and I were the last ones inside the church, and I was doing a final walk-through to make sure everything was in order so we could leave. I did it every week. I practically had it down to a science.

Yet here was Cole, asking to be the one in charge and seeking the responsibility to do what I normally do.

“OK,” I said, relinquishing control to him.

I continued walking through the building like I always do, only this time I let Cole take care of things as we came upon them.

He was very conscientious about helping me. When we came to a classroom, he wanted to turn off the lights. When we came to a classroom with a closed door, he wanted to open it and look inside, checking to make sure everything was in order.

His major point of concern was picking everything off the floor and leaving the classrooms looking neat.

As I watched him race around from one room to the next, I thought about the fervency with which he was tackling this assignment to “help daddy.” It was all-consuming. He wanted to do a good job for me.

Do we work with the same fervency for our heavenly father as Cole did for me?

I’m not even talking about the work we do at church. You see, each one of us has a call; each one of us has a ministry. For some, like me, that call is to be a minister in a local church. For others, that call is to be a minister in the workplace, at school, in the neighborhood or in the community at large.

No matter where we are called to work, we must approach our job with a fervency and conscientiousness similar to that which Cole displayed that Sunday afternoon.

Colossians 3:23-24 says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord ... it is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

When we work for the Lord and not for men, people take notice. They see something different in us, a different motivation for what we do. In a very real sense, we’re letting our lights “shine before men, in such a way that they may see (our) good works, and glorify (our) Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Who are you working for? Someone else? Yourself? Or are you working for the Lord?

The Rev. Parrish Myers is a local minister living in Braselton. His column appears biweekly in Sunday Life and on gainesvilletimes.com/life.