One thought that continually encroaches upon my thinking is this: excelling at your particular field is glorifying God.
I want to define my terms because I specifically have not used 'worship'. Worship is a lifestyle, and thus it is not something 'done' like an action, but it is something 'lived'--or to use a more Eastern term, it is something to 'be'. Glory is something very closely related to worship, because the goal of worship is to glorify God.
What is glory? Well, the phrase 'the glory of God' is basically God's honor. We'll need to understand what honor is--I'll just draw out the most relevant parts and leave the nuances for your own discovery. You can think of God's honor as God's importance and value. Simple, isn't it? God is of the highest value and importance, and likewise is of the highest honor.
When people see someone who is excellent, the typical response is something along the lines of admiration. If there is a 'close' group who sees excellence among themselves, they will be glad that some of their members have great accomplishments; something to be proud of. Sometimes the reaction is one of awe: this person has overcome a great struggle. Those who are excellent are models because they are idols.
Now imagine you were talking to an excellent person, and you found out that they are merely students of a great teacher--their teacher is yet greater than they. Much respect and awe would be given to their teacher.
Something interesting happened in that theoretical exchange, and it rests at the very core of my argument. That person is viewed as great. But their teacher is viewed as greater--why? They testified, upon their reputation, that their teacher is greater than they. So then, the student is a testimony of the teacher. A reflection, if you will.
In very much the same way, the imagery used in the Bible of the slave and his master communicate the same pathos. There's a very important social instutition in the ancient Mediterranean world called patronage. This was the part that sparked this entry. Patronage is just about as complex as honor, so I'll once again draw the most relevant parts out, and leave the rest for your own discovery.
There were two main parties in patronage: the patron, which is the rich guy, and the client, which is the not-so-rich guy. The patron typically had more resources than he needed; lots to go around. The client might recieve resources from the patron (this is called giving favor). If the client's petition for favor was granted, a potentially long-term relationship might be entered into. This is not a deeply intimate relationship as the modern usage suggests, but it was more of a business affair. (When you see the word 'friend' in the New Testament, it means 'client'.) One of the things the client would do, to show his/her gratitude, is make known the generosity of the patron. This is the testimony of the client.
Consider another form of testimony--the unspoken kind. Let's once again go back to the student-teacher idea. The point I want to make is more obvious with first-century rabbis and their teaching methods. A student who wanted to learn from a rabbi would not come once-a-week and sit in classes. He would go and follow the rabbi, observe his ways, his methods, and learn to 'be' a rabbi. Then suppose we met this student, and found him to be excellent. He is knowledgeable, wise, caring, strong... that would say much about his rabbi.
It is with this basic understanding that we can see that the excellence of a servant is a glorifying reflection of the master.
Thus, your excellence is a glorifying reflection of your Master.
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