Managing Our Day! Series

Day to Day Stewardship

Ecclesiastes 3:9-12

October 28, 2018

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that explains the reason you’re frustrated on the way to work in the morning? It’s because of this ~

I'm in no hurry, I'm on my way to work.

You could buy that bumper sticker for $2.49 on the Internet.

Have you ever felt that way?

Now, we do have some days when we’re really not feeling it. We didn’t sleep well, we’re hungry, we don’t feel well, we had an argument with a family member . . . it could be a myriad of reasons. It happens.

But when it’s happening all of the time, that’s a sign something is broken and needs to be changed. Maybe it’s your attitude. Maybe it’s your job! Maybe it’s whatever is causing you to be dissatisfied. Too many people are just not happy with their jobs. It doesn’t matter the profession. They want to quit or go to a different company or win the lottery.

When that happens our performance suffers. Someone once asked a man, "How long does it take you to get to work in the morning?"

He said, "Usually I get to work about a half-hour after I clock in."

When you think about it, about 1/3 of our adult lives is spent working. That means 33% of your time, not including the commuting is spent on the job. If you don’t like it, then you’ve got troubles.

Well, we’ve been look at what it means to be a good steward with our lives. To manage our lives well. We’ve looked at a number of topics and issues. We have 3 more to cover. Today, we’re looking at what it means to be a good employee or a good student or a good volunteer in an organization.

Former Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry knew how to get the most out of his players; he once said ~

When people aren't happy doing what they do, they don't do it as well as when they are happy.

Think about that. When you’re not happy with what you’re doing, then the odds of doing it well - - most likely decreases. When you’re happy, you’re going to work harder because you’re more passionate about it.

He also added this about leadership, which is just as true ~

Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted.

Isn’t that true, as well. Sometimes, someone needs to push us to do what we don’t want to do, so we can accomplish what we’ve always wanted to achieve.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, in chapter 3, we read these words from Solomon ~

9 What gain has the worker from his toil?

10 I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.

11 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.

12 I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

13 also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil — this is God's gift to man. – Ecclesiastes 3:9-13

Note what Solomon is telling us. Especially in verse 12, Solomon tells us “there is nothing better for us than to be joyful and to do good as long as we live.”

That’s a great prescription for us as we consider what it means to be good at managing our lives when it comes to work, school or volunteering. Really, it’s a great thought for anything we’re doing.

Sometimes it’s really difficult to be joyful, or just to be feeling good about what you’re doing when you’re not happy with what you’re doing.

Yet, Solomon’s telling us we should feel joy and do good as long as we live. Isn’t that what we really want in life? Isn’t that what we all want in anything we’re doing? We want joy or happiness. We want to do good, we want to be a success. We want to make a difference in this world.

In the end, Solomon wrote ~ when we do this, we should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all that we do . . . and this is a gift from God. The gift of being, the gift of doing. It’s a gift from God to you and I. And it’s not a punishment.

So, how do we get there? How do we feel that our work, our school, our volunteering is worthwhile? I mean, I can’t remember waking up and going to school and thinking ‘this is so cool, I get to go to school and do homework!’