Do You Enjoy Your Daily Work?

     
  God has given to each one of us work to do.  The question is:  Do we enjoy the work He has called us to?  In all honesty, I hate grocery shopping.  I don't mind going to the store to get the items we need for the week, but unpacking at home is anything but fun.  I feel the same way about cleaning toilets, scrubbing out bathtubs and polishing wood floors.  It isn't fun but someone has to do it.  Still, when I finish the chores, I do enjoy sitting back knowing that my home is clean.
          Working four days a week at my husband's office can also be a challenge for me.  Hearing the alarm at 5:51 in the morning is not a sound I look forward to, but I know that God has called me to walk alongside my spouse and demonstrate the love of Christ to all I meet.  It is what God has ordained for me at this time.  In fact, the Bible has something to say about enjoying our work whether in the home or outside of it.
           Ecclesiastes 3:9-13 tells us about our toil:  "What gain has the worker from his toil?  I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that He cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.  I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil -this is God's gift to man."  What a new way of looking at work!  We are to be joyful and take pleasure in what we do because God has given our work to us as a gift.
           When it comes to fleshing this out, I still do not see great enjoyment in cleaning toilets, but I do feel satisfaction when the bathroom is clean.  After cooking a good meal, I have the pleasure of consuming it.  There are always positives to the work that we do if we will look at it from God's perspective.  This passage makes us aware that we do not always understand God's purposes or plans for us, but we know this:  "He has made all things beautiful in its time."  He wants us to bloom where He has planted us for His glory.
            All of us would like to think that we know what tomorrow will bring, but as the writer of Ecclesiastes says:  "Also, He has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."  There are many mysteries in life.  We don't always know why God has us doing the work we are currently involved in whether at home or outside the home.  Yet, we know this.  He holds our future in His hands.  He wants us to be content where He has us at this time whether it is flipping burgers at Mcdonald's or cleaning toilets at home.  After all, God's perspective on work is that it is a gift to us so that we may enjoy the fruit of our labors.
           I remember well how happy my father was to be a farmer.  He and I would often talk about his chosen profession.  He started to attend college and did very well at it with the goal of becoming an attorney like his father.  However, he left it behind not because it was too difficult for him but because he loved plowing a field and watching a crop come in.  This brought him joy and he felt closest to God when he worked on the farm.  This is what I believe the message of this passage points out.
           As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says in question one:  "What is the chief end of man?  Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (I Cor. 10:31, Psalm 73:24-26)."  Therefore, let us bring God the glory with a good attitude, a heart filled with joy and the satisfaction in a job well done at our work place, in our home or wherever God has called us to serve Him.  When we rejoice in the gift of work, we will do a better job as well as honor the Lord who gave us the work  to do.  Selah!


Pictures courtesy of Wiki Commons GeorgHH and Chuck Marean are the photographers.

A Wise Guy or a Wise Believer

A crown in the gallery of "The Residence in Munich, Germany

     Reading in the Book of Ecclesiastes, I came to realize that the author, whom many Bible scholars believer is Solomon, doesn't seem to be a very positive writer.  Rather, his gloomy reflections on life and existence (chapter 1:1-18) can make us feel weighed down unless we look beyond what he is saying to the answer for our lives...Jesus Christ.
     Life is, indeed, vanity without the Lord.  There really is "nothing new under the sun" when we consider all the ideas and false religions that abound in this world.  In fact, "the preacher's" outlook is that of someone who has tried everything but found no answers inside himself.  This is not unlike our society today.
     Some years ago on the Larry King Show there were two Jewish rabbis,  the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and the head of "Jews for Jesus".  The discussion revolved around a book published by the Baptists on how to witness to Jews.  The rabbis concluded that this booklet was racist in its approach whereas the other two guests contended that it was merely a tool for learning how to initiate conversation with someone of another faith.  It was a heated discussion.  One of the rabbis stated that in his opinion all roads lead to heaven so there is no need to change anyone's religion.  In short, there are no new ideas under heaven presented by either of the gentlemen who did not know Christ as Messiah.
     If we key in on verses 12-18 of Chapter 1, we get a glimpse of what Solomon thought of wisdom and ideas.  In verse 12 and 13, he writes:  "I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.  And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man by which they may be exercised."  It is, in fact, a burdensome task to seek out wisdom when you don't have Jesus, but the Lord said that His burden is light and His yoke is easy.  What a difference He makes in our lives!
     Knowledge and wisdom are certainly all vanity without the relationship with Jesus Christ.  The sad part for Solomon was that he was given all this wisdom by which he became famous, but his heart turned away from the Giver.  Instead, he became captivated by many women and their false religions.  Therefore, his life was empty and meaningless even though he was the richest king in the history of Israel.  Verse 18 reads:  "For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow."
     Solomon could see that knowledge and wisdom only made him more aware of the awful effects of man's sin in this world.  All we have to do today is look around at how man has misused all the great knowledge he has attained:  abortion, euthanasia, nuclear weapons and the Holocaust are a few examples.
     Without Jesus Christ, wisdom and knowledge are empty and in vain.  Our Savior is our hope, our light, and our very life.  If our hearts are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can apply correctly the learning we have received with glorious results.  However, those who do not know Christ can only see futility in life just as Solomon did.
     So as we read the Bible today, or work on a project or read a book, let us invite the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds so that we may have the wisdom of our heavenly Father to guide us.  Then, we will know what a marvelous world He has created and how glorious is His love for us!  Selah!


How has God given you insight at the time you needed it?   I welcome your thoughts.