We joke about what workers do when the boss is away. We often don’t think about what the boss does when the workers are away.

I can tell you.

Some of us who are bosses like to not have the pressure of people looking at us, watching our every step. Some of us like to have the questions stop, people wondering about how to do and why to do and when to do and what to do. Some of us like to have the time alone, to collect our thoughts which have been scattered like sand in the winds from the northeast, with gusts up to 40 miles an hour.

And then there is Jesus.

He sends his disciples out on their internship journey and then, rather than sitting back, “he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.” Matthew 11:1

He goes back to the business of making disciples. He’ll get more tough questions. He’ll have his cousin’s disciples come asking if really is who he says he is.

And that, apparently, is okay.

But this is just another example of his commitment to his job of preaching. He had to be about preaching. He had to be telling people the Good News of the kingdom. It wasn’t what he did just because his followers were around. It was what he did that brought followers to him. He was completely about this work.

And I wonder. Am I good because people are watching? Am I devoted in order to impress followers? Am I a teacher because I like having students? Or am I committed to following that calling regardless of audience or affirmation or agreement?

Both are probably true. The challenge and the goal, however, is to be faithful always, in all situations, through all settings.