And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Colossians 3:22 (MSG)

Question: Are the public works of the artist the purest demonstration of their passion?

The painter’s canvas hanging on a gallery wall?
The musician’s song playing across radio airwaves?
The pastor’s sermon proclaimed from the church pulpit?

Or… might the private work, the art that nobody sees, be the higher revelation of passion and calling

Working from my favorite local coffee hang not long ago, I found myself transfixed by the barista. From my side-counter vantage point, it became evident that he was giving the same amount of care, if not more, to his “latte art” in a lid-covered go cup as he was to the large-rimmed mugs, meant to be seen, sipped and savored in-house.

Why would this barista invest time, energy, even artistic love, in something that the customer would never see?

Why not just pour the latte into the paper cup, put the lid on and get the next drink made?

What if one’s art, the passionate drive for craftsmanship and making, is truly revealed in the work that nobody sees?
The canvases in the closet, painted on a whim.
The lyrics in a notebook, unheard and unrecorded.
The sermons to one’s self shaped in quiet moments of reflective study.

It is easy to think that our public efforts deserve the most time and attention…
when in reality, depth of passion lives in the work that nobody ever will see.