Business as Unusual

Date: Friday, September 11, 2026

Paul rolls into Corinth broke, weary, and apparently discouraged enough that God has to show up in a night vision and say, “Do not be afraid… for I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you.” Notice what Paul does while he waits on that promise: he doesn’t retreat to a monastery; he pitches tents with Priscilla and Aquila and works a trade. The sacred and the secular were never as separated as we like to pretend; Paul preached on the Sabbath and stitched leather the rest of the week, and both were obedience.

During the Nazi occupation of France, the small Huguenot village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon quietly sheltered thousands of Jewish refugees. Just ordinary villagers opening ordinary homes, week after week, trusting a presence larger than their fear. Like Paul’s tentmaking, it looked like nothing spectacular from the outside. It was, in fact, the gospel wearing work clothes.

Psalm 62 supplies the interior posture behind both stories: “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him… he only is my rock and my salvation.” Corinth was a hostile, sensual, status-obsessed city; not unlike a lot of our workplaces and group chats today. Paul’s confidence wasn’t in his circumstances improving; it was in a God who had already spoken. That’s a steadiness worth borrowing on ordinary Friday mornings.

Devotional Prompts:

What would it look like to treat your everyday work as a place of quiet obedience rather than a distraction from “real” ministry?
Where do you need God’s reassuring “I am with you” this week, even before circumstances change?

Prayer: Faithful God, steady our souls in silence before you, especially in seasons that feel ordinary or unnoticed. Let our daily work become an offering, and remind us that You are present long before we feel it. Amen.