Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The Pleasures of Work, Work, Work...

Scripture Passages that caught my attention today: Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink, and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God; 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? AND Ephesians 2:8-10 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Observation: Who we are and the toils before us are both gifts from God. But that doesn’t always make them easy to understand.

Application: I was struck by a couple of themes in today’s readings.

The first, from Ecclesiastes, stresses that, even though much of life is vanity, there is nothing better than finding enjoyment in toil itself (though not necessarily in the results of said toil).

This, of course, is contrary to most mindsets. Most of us find enjoyment in accomplishments, in projects completed. Very few of us find enjoyment in starting over, especially on something that originally required considerable time and effort. But for the author of Ecclesiastes, it is the process in which joy is found, not the accomplishment. What is accomplished will eventually be left for someone else who may or may not appreciate the accomplishment or care for it. And even if they do care for it, what about the person that comes after them? There are no guarantees. Chasing after accomplishments is mere vanity. But no one can take away the joy of the process of the toil itself. No-one except ourselves, of course. We are the only ones who can refuse to find joy in our work.

Moving on, but in a similar vein, to today’s lesson from Ephesians, the writer surmises that we were created for work/toil; it’s how we are wired.

For the most part I find this to be incredibly good news. Last night the family and I caught the last part of a television program called “America’s Got Talent.” One of the contestants was a young man who purportedly had never sung in public or even in front of his family before. He also dressed in a way that would not be considered traditional. He claimed to not be good at anything but, as it turned out, his voice was quite impressive. The standing ovation of the crowd stood as testimony that he was a valuable person in his own right and that he should find joy in working to share the gift that he has been given. “We are” after all, “what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

But this still raises a few questions. While the idea of being what God has made us can be reassuring for many, what about for those of us who, well, aren’t exactly desirable in terms of our personality/disposition? To put it bluntly, what if we are primarily known as nothing more than a pain in the rear? Is this what God has made us? And if so, how do we find enjoyment in our toil when no one else seems to appreciate our work?

I think we all know people who might fit into such categories. Or perhaps we feel like such a person ourselves.

It seems to me that there are a couple options in such circumstances. The first would simply be to seek out a community where we are appreciated. Perhaps where we are currently at is simply not a good fit. It happens on teams, in companies, in churches and other organizations, etc. Sometimes it’s healthier for all to simply seek out a better fit.

But sometimes it’s not feasible to seek a different fit. For any number of reasons we might be stuck in a less-than-ideal situation. In such cases the second option comes to mind—deliberately seek to appreciate how God has made the other people in our midst. Seek to find enjoyment in THEIR toil. Seek to be amazed at their diligence, at their completely opposite way of seeing things, at their own way of being who God has made them to be. Don’t focus on their accomplishments or the lack-thereof, but in the ways in which they find enjoyment in their toil. Perhaps then we can begin to find more enjoyment in our own toil. Perhaps they will begin to do so as well.

Prayer:
Lord, let the work that you have provided (whether for pay or simply by availability), be a source of personal joy—especially when devoted to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Ecclesiastes 1-3, Psalm 45, Ephesians 2)

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