Enjoying your work...

While my kids were at piano lessons in a nearby town this week, I stopped in at the fire department there to visit with my friend Sam who works there. He was out in the parking lot talking with his grandparents when I pulled up. They were in the area visiting family and had stopped by to shoot the breeze with Sam. I enjoyed getting to know them a bit.

Sam’s grandpa works for a feed lot near Lamar, Colorado. His duties include operating big loaders. He regaled Sam and me with the tale of the time he ran over a steer with his 50,000 pound machine – that’s empty weight! Amazingly, though he ran over it twice and tire marks were visible across the steer’s midsection, the beast survived. (Of course the poor thing still became a McDonald’s entrée in the end. That’s life on the feed lot if you’re a cow. One way or another you’re dead meat.)

Besides this story of squished bovine, one other thing stood out to me in our conversation. Sam’s grandpa, sort of offhandedly, said something I thought rather profound. I can’t quote him exactly, but he said something like, “I know some people find it hard to believe anyone could enjoy working in a feed lot, but I like my work.”

After doing the same thing week after week, month after month for over 30 years, that’s significant. Not everyone can say, “I like my work,” but Sam’s grandpa could.

I think right now, with the way the job market is, there are a good number of people who are more thankful for the job they have been in a while. With so many out of work, it’s hard to complain no matter the hours or the pay or the people or anything. I know those still-employed folks I’ve talked to are grateful they can keep food on the table for their families.

One guy I’ve talked to repeatedly is one of only two men still holding a job at his company. Everyone else was let go months ago. You know he’s thanking God for work.

I’ve heard the other side too, of course. People hoping they can find something to do. Men and women willing to do anything, but unable to land a job. Some in our town are in that boat. A few in our church are.

I hope you pray for your friends who are struggling to make ends meet. Don’t forget those whose unemployment benefits may be about to run out. Do what you can to help.

Let’s go back to Sam’s grandpa’s statement now. “I like my work.” Can you say that? I hope you can. The Bible says that if you can say that, it’s a gift from God.

Listen to what Solomon, King of Israel, wrote in Ecclesiastes 5:10-20.

“Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless. As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them? The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep.

“I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, or wealth lost through some misfortune, so that when he has a son there is nothing left for him. Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand.

“This too is a grievous evil: As a man comes, so he departs, and what does he gain, since he toils for the wind? All his days he eats in darkness, with great frustration, affliction and anger.

“Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him – for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work – this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.” (NIV)

I love these words of wisdom. They warn of the dangers of piling up wealth. If you love wealth, you’ll be dissatisfied with what you get for yourself. Everyone will be knocking on your door wanting what you have. You’ll be worried about losing your stuff to some misfortune and lose sleep over it. Your life will be filled with frustration, affliction and anger. That’s not how “having it all” is advertised, I know, but it is what comes with the love of money.

These words don’t stop there, though. They also speak of the joys of working hard for a living. The sleep of the laborer is sweet – Solomon says it’s true whether there’s a lot to eat or little. The man who works finds satisfaction in it and, get this, that satisfaction is a gift from God. It is the Lord, Solomon says, who enables men to enjoy what they have and allows them to be happy in their work. Our God fills each laborer’s heart with gladness, with joy. Being able to say, “I like my work,” is evidence of God’s work in your heart.

As I read this passage I am grateful for the gift God has given me in my work. I like what he’s called me to do. I wouldn’t trade my job for any other – at least not most days.

Are you grateful for the same in your own life? God’s calling on your life, the vocation he’s given you, is made sweeter by the joy he gives in it, is it not? Why don’t you thank God right now for this gift? It seems an appropriate thing to do on Labor Day.

God is good!

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