Labor Of Love

I know this isn’t Labor Day weekend. But it’s too important a topic to skip. It’s big in the news these days, what with unemployment still above 6%. We all know people who are looking for work - and have been for more than 6 months.

But hey - work isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, right? How many of you fantasize about winning the lottery? What would you do? Pay off all your debts, remodel the house - or buy a new one - give money to family and friends, maybe endow the church or some charitable project you really care about. But then what? I’d travel. There are SO many places in the world I want to see, so many places I haven’t been ... But then what?

Could you spend the rest of your life just playing? Perhaps you think you can now, but stop for just a minute. Yes, it’s nice now and then to lie by the pool with a new book and a tall glass of icy lemonade, but could you face it for weeks on end? What do you do on your days off? Do you have a hobby? Do you garden, or sew, or cook, or take photographs, or - what do you do?

Guess what. We were made to work. We simply can’t be happy unless we’re making or doing or thinking something that matters, something that makes a difference, something that says “I am making a contribution.”

What IS the purpose of life? The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that our primary purpose is “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” And that is true. But how do we do that? It is by fulfilling the functions for which we were created. And we were created with jobs to do. Genesis tells us that God made us to have dominion over all the rest of the created world. That means the need to work is imprinted on the most basic level of our DNA. And even the secular world acknowledges this basic truth.

Psychologist Abraham Maslow put together a list of human needs which has become a classic. In order of their importance, they are: 1. Physiological - we absolutely must have food and sleep. 2. Safety - to be protected from everything from the weather to other people. 3rd on the list are social needs: for affection, and belonging. # 4 gets a lot of attention in our society: esteem. We need to find value in our selves, and we need to know that other people also see us as valuable. That comes at least partly - but not entirely - from a sense of achievement, of competence. But at the very top of the list, the flag on the mountain, is “self actualization.” That means DOING THINGS. If we are fed, safe, connected, confident, and productive, we are complete.

Now you may look at your own job and say to yourself, did God really make me for this? There are a lot of jobs that seem to grind people down rather than build them up. Part of this is just the result of living in a fallen world. The third chapter of Genesis tells us that instead of being joyful and fulfilling, work is going to be hard, frustrating, sometimes dangerous. “Cursed is the ground because of you,” says God to Adam, “in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you.” [Gen 3:17-19] What are the thorns and thistles in your field of work?

Back in the Middle Ages, people believed that being a priest or a nun was more “spiritual” than other kinds of work. There’s a story about England’s King Henry III, who, growing tired of court life and the pressures of being the king, applied to a monastery to be accepted for a life of contemplation. The religious superior said to him, “Your Majesty, do you understand that the pledge here is one of obedience? That will be hard because you have been a king.” Henry replied, “I understand. The rest of my life I will be obedient to you, as Christ leads you.” The abbot then told him, “Go back to your throne and serve faithfully in the place where God has placed you.”

The Reformation made that idea explicit. John Calvin, the father of Presbyterianism, said that “We know that men were created for the express purpose of being employed in labor of various kinds, and that no sacrifice is more pleasing to God than when every man applies diligently to his own calling, and endeavors to live in such a manner as to contribute to the general advantage.” [Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists 2:143] Paul put it somewhat differently in Ephesians 2:10, but the meaning is the same: “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.” In anther letter he added