How To Respond To Working

"Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. Proverbs 6:6

A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest— then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber. Proverbs 6:10-11

A lazy person is as bad as someone who destroys things. Proverbs 18:9

Lazy people are soon poor, hard workers get rich. Proverbs 10:4

Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Romans 12:11

Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands. 1 Thessalonians 4:11

Too often work is looked at as some "four letter word". Something to be dreaded, and avoided. Every Monday morning, millions of us wake up, dreading the coming week. We go to jobs we don't like, or are made to go to school, if we're that group. We may even go to jobs that we enjoy but, it's just that it would be nice to stay home one more day. PLEASE, just one more day! Even at home, parents struggle with children to get them to do a few chores around the house, spouses argue about painting the house, mowing the lawn, doing laundry, and doing windows.

The reality is we all face jobs, and task that are unpleasant, we do not want to do them. We may not see an immediate, or obvious reward, and in some cases, life would not be changed very drastically if the task at hand gets completed or not.

Some of us however cannot even make that choice. They have, through no faults of their own, become physically disabled. Some people have been sitting at home for years, collecting some type of social income, or compensation. People that want to work, that hate staying home day after day, with little hope of when they can return to work, or if the kind of work that they will return to is even something that they really want to do. Physical limitations force people into new career paths by no choice of their own. Life has handed them a situation, and they are obliged to deal with it. If you are in this situation, do not despair. This is an unique opportunity to spend time with Christ. Realize your time is a gift from God. Seek Gods will on how to meet your potential.

He put me in a situation were I was temporarily out of work. It was my responsibility, to not get angry, but to look to Him. By focusing on God, and not on my circumstances I was able to see how God wanted me to work at that time. Remember, He is our Father. He has a plan for life that involves Him. Look to Him for strength and guidance.

In dealing with matters of laziness, I'd like to direct you to a book, "Why America Doesn't Work" by Charles Colson and Jack Eckerd:

Work is one of the few constants of our existence, one of the few commonalities of humanity, and we spend about half of our waking life doing it. Work is also the best indicator of the vitality of an individual or civilization. Why else would unemployment and productivity figures be some of the first statistics on everyone's' lips when assessing the health of our national economy?

However, work is much more than the sum of these part, It is much more that just a need to keep busy or bring home a paycheck. Meaning full work is a fundamental dimension of human existence, an expression of our very nature....

....From the beginning of the world there was work, for at the beginning there was Creation- the work of God. When he rested on the seventh day, "he rested from all the work of creating he had done" and God pronounced his work "good".

Always remember this; there is no such thing as just a factory worker, just an auto mechanic, just a banker, just a dental assistant, just a housewife, just an anything. God has given us all unique abilities. It is up to us to use them to the best of our capability.

At times we may look at our work and feel inferior. We don't make as much money as the doctor, or the machinist, or welder. But, we are all part of a bigger picture. We all serve an important part in keeping society together. I tell my son that everybody wants to win the lottery; everybody wants to rich. But, I let him know that if everybody won their millions of dollars that they long for, there wouldn't be anybody working a McDonald's when he wants a Big Mac, there wouldn't be anybody working at the gas station when we want to take a trip.

Look at your abilities and skills as a gift from God. Be a good steward of God's gifts, and use these skills in a way that will be glorious to God's eyes.

 

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