Keeping Your Balance - Work
Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15
Two weeks ago, our guest speaker, Mr. Jon, spoke about balance. Having a balance in our lives of the things that are good and necessary parts of our lives. I want to bounce off of that message. Jon gave the introduction. For the next three weeks, we’re going to look at three of the most important things in our lives that we need to balance: work, rest, and play.
Those three things, particularly, need to be in balance in all of our lives, if we’re going to have all the other things fall into place. And I do believe if we have these in balance - a good and godly balance, then most other things that pressure us for our time, will also take their rightful place in our lives, or those things that press for our time, but we have no business even considering them, will eventually work their way out of our lives all together.
Today, let’s talk about work.
What is work, really. Is it only what we get paid to do - our job? Is work work when we are doing something we don’t like, because if we like to do it, it’s play? Does work have to be productive to be work? What is work?
Webster’s dictionary uses almost half a page to define work, but at the outset it says work is, “a physical or mental effort exerted to do or make something.” Webster’s says work is, “purposeful activity.”
WORK = Purposeful Activity
Think about what you had for breakfast this morning. I had a ½ bagel. I was the only one in the kitchen at the time. I got the bagel myself, toasted it myself, put peanut butter on it all by myself, and ate it myself.
Despite all that independent, self-sufficient activity, a staggering amount of work went into my breakfast this morning.
First there was the farmer who planted and harvested the wheat that went into the bagel. Then there was the miller who turned the wheat into flour. There was the baker who turned the flour into a bagel by adding other ingredients and cooking it. There was the packager who packaged the bagels. There was the overnight worker who stocked the shelves at the grocery store placing them in such a way that it would be appealing for me to buy the bagels. There was the cashier at the store where I, finally, purchased the bagel.
That all seems pretty obvious doesn’t it. But that only scratches the surface of the work that went into my having a toasted bagel this morning. There was the manufacturer of the toaster and the manufacture of the parts that made the toaster. I plugged the toaster into the electrical outlet, so there was the wiring into our home so that the toaster could toast. And I put (listen for it) PEANUT BUTTER on my toast with a KNIFE that I took out of the KITCHEN DRAWER. I think you get my drift.
Now, when we ask God to provide us with our daily bagel, he could drop it, like manna, from Heaven. But, instead, he chooses to use many, many people, all over the world, engaged in purposeful activity, so that my needs - and wants - can be satisfied.
So, then, is work - for instance ALL the work that went into my bagel - is there anything spiritual about it?
How is work related to our faith? Is there a connection between God’s work and our work? Galen was just promoted at work. How does that promotion affect his relationship with God? More importantly, how does Galen’s relationship with God, affect his work - influence the fact that he got a promotion? Does God even figure into it?
Is work just what we HAVE to do in order to have the things that we need - or WANT.
David Jensen says, “If Christian theology avoids the topic of work, then it suggests that the bulk of the Christian life - time spent working - is peripheral to the heart of the faith.” (Responsive Labor, p. 2)
Is our work life connected in any way to our spiritual life? I mean sure it is if you’re a pastor or a chaplain. What about if you’re a bank president? Or an assembly line worker? Or a teacher? Or a grocery store clerk?
Are you a teacher who just happens to be a Christian? Or are you a Christian teacher. Does being a Christian define who you are as a teacher?
That’s the key question:
Does being a Christian define what I do as a __________________? (You fill in the blank there, of what it is you do.)
You’ve heard me say many times, “What you do is not who you are.” And yet, what we do, and why we do it, does shape our identity, not just give us a sense of identity.
Why do you work? Those of you who work either inside OR outside the home, why do you work? (Take some answers.)
Again, Jensen, in his book, “Responsive Labor” says, “The reason we have upped our work rate and productivity is because since 1950 we have wanted to consume more.”
It’s simple really - we work because we have needs that we have to meet. And we live in a society that is based on supply and demand. We don’t (for the most part) live in a hunter-gather system or in a barter system, - we live in a trade system. We work for money so we can trade the money we earn to purchase the goods and services we need.
So, I work, because I have needs.
Here’s the point:
Ordinary human work has a spiritual significance that we need to recover and live out. (Repeat.)
The spiritual significance for the work we do is never ultimately about me. Not if you’re a Christian -anything.
The spiritual significance for the work we do, regardless of what that work is, if you are a Christ-follower, is always God-centered. And being God-centered, it is always other-oriented.
The work God has called you to do, is so that you can live out, in the context of that work, your Christian faith - your biblical witness.
And that’s not easy. There are temptations that pull at our spirits - to try to pull our work ethic out of balance. Any time work is out of balance with rest and play, the devil has a foothold.
Hindrances to balanced work
1. Busyness
The United States has developed a cultural philosophy in the last 50-60 years that says,
I’m busy, therefore I am.
Now before you get mad at me for saying that, did you know that the United States is the only developed nation that does not have a law mandating vacation days for workers? Even Japan, which is generally given the label of “workahholic” is required to give their employees 25 days off a year.
When we meet someone in town.
How are you? Busy!
It’s a reply of significance. I’m busy so I must be important, significant.
Another hindrance to keeping our work balanced is,
2. Technology
Technology has contributed to a busy culture. I don’t think you’ll find this in the research but let’s think about it for a minute. Technology is supposed to make things easier, right? It’s supposed to give us more time for other things, right?
But actually, I think, technology increases our workload.
Several days this week, I counted the number of emails that come to my in box. Average number of emails I got per day was 56! 56!
Can you imagine having that amount of snail mail, every day in your mailbox?
But here’s the thing - because it’s Email - it’s expected you will respond more quickly. AND you are still expected to do at least the same amount of work as you did 10 or 20 years ago when you maybe got a trickle of emails, or a few letters in your mailbox.
How many of you still enjoy getting a hand-written letter?
I imagine we have young people here today who have never experienced the joy of going to the mailbox, and finding a hand-written letter from a good friend whom you haven’t heard from in a while.
The point is, far from freeing us up for social and family time, technology has led to higher expectations, faster processing, and therefore heavier workload.
Some scholars say, we work more hours now, on average, than we ever have before. In the high middle ages even the average peasant worked only about 180 days a year. Since the Industrial Revolution, the number of days worked has increased to over 300. They say in more recent years, days worked per year is decreasing, but I’m not convinced. I think the statistics may just be a bit skewed because not as many people punch time clocks as once did and because of the work-at-home trend we’ve been experiencing.
Just as an aside, Some economists have recommended moving to a 21 hour standard work week to address problems with unemployment, high carbon emissions, low well-being, entrenched inequalities, overworking, family care, and the general lack of free time
And now most of us are thinking - “How would I ever get all my work done in 21 hours!!”
Another hindrance to a balanced perspective on work is,
3. Advertising
Advertising is designed to stimulate consumption. If it weren’t it wouldn’t be good advertising!
BUT - what is happening now, particularly in the US, is that advertising has become necessary in order to keep production going.
Dorothy Sayers says that a society that requires advertising to stimulate consumption in order to keep production going is a society whose house is built on sand.
And of course, as advertising increases consumption, wages need to increase.
4. Wages
Ben Witherington III says, “One of the worst byproducts of capitalism (which, of course has some good byproducts as well) is that we are taught to evaluate work, not on the basis of its goodness or its usefulness but on whether it is well remunerated.”
People who receive more pay, generally are more highly thought of than those who receive lesser, and those who receive more pay, generally have a loftier view of themselves as well.
So what do we do about all this. How do we keep a balanced perspective on our labor? On work?
A few minutes ago, I said that we work because we have needs. And that’s true, right? I mean if all our needs were met, would you work?
If you had won the lottery last night, would you be going to work tomorrow morning?
So we work, because we have needs.
What if . . . What if - I work, because YOU have needs? What if *I* considered MY going to work in the morning, something *I* did, because someone else had needs? How would our outlook be different and how “purposeful” would our activity become then? If we worked because THE OTHER person has needs, not because WE have needs.
We’ve been talking about shifts of the soul in our Wednesday night Bible studies.
There’s a shift.
Me to You
When we go to work, what if the MAIN reason that we clock in in the morning, is because the other person has needs, how does it change our outlook and, listen, our theology of work, if it is to supply another’s needs rather than our needs?
There’s another shift in there - did you notice it - those of you in Soul Shift - it’s Consumer to Steward.
Takes us right back to David Jensen’s statement about working more to produce more because since 1950 we have wanted to consume more.
But he also says that if we work only to satisfy our appetites and our needs, we have an impoverished view of ourselves.
In other words, if we just work to pay the bills, we think less of ourselves than God does.
Now before you all go out and quit your jobs, look at our scripture again.
Vs 10 - “Those unwilling to work will not get to eat.”
But is that ALL there is to work. Look back at what Paul says in vs 8: “We worked hard day and night so we would not be a burden to any of you.” There it is - the shift - from Me to You.
Paul says they had every right to ask the people at Thessalonica to feed them - to provide for their needs, but they didn’t. They worked for the good of the other person.
So, here’s my point.
What if the labor that WE do - whatever it is - is not so much so we can have what WE want. It’s not so much so that WE can pay the bills. What if the main reason that the toaster maker makes the toaster is so that I can have a toasted bagel in the morning?
What if the main reason Galen oversees three branches of a bank, is so that we can have a safe and convenient place to keep the money we do earn?
What if the MAIN reason Ron loads the semi with corn, drives it to the elevator, unloads it, gets his ticket and then goes back and does it all over again, is so that the waitress at Mexican Village can make a living by serving corn chips to her customers to keep them happy?
What if our pay check is secondary to every other reason that we have for going to work?
God has called us for a purpose. He has called us to work. It is purposeful activity. The question is, “Is it God’s purpose for which we work, or is it for our own purposes?
There’s a place at the bottom of your sermon notes for you to apply this message to your own work. When you fill that in, remember it is the MAIN reason that you work. Be honest! If you need to turn that into a prayer - do that. We know the MAIN reason we work is so that God may be glorified - so that we’ll bring glory to God in all we do. Narrow that down now to the specific way you glorify God in your work.
(Give you a few moments to think about that and fill it in, while I read you a poem about work, from Ben Witherington.)
Weary, worn, welts on hand
Work has whittled down the man
To the bare necessities
Of what he is, and what he’ll be
Was this then, his destiny?
Defined, refined by what we do,
The toilsome tasks are never through
Thorn and thistle, dirt and dust
Sweeping clean, removing rust
All to earn his upper crust?
Sweat of brow, and carried weight
Rose too early, slept too late
Slaving, striving dawn to dusk
‘Til the shell is barely husk
Staunch the stench with smell of musk?
But work is not the curse or cure
By which we’re healed, or will endure
It will not save us in the end,
It is no foe, but rather friend
But while it molds us, will we mend?
Task Master making all things new
Who makes the most of what we do,
Let our work an offering be
A timely gift from those set free
From earning our eternity.
When work is mission on the move
By those whose efforts serve to prove
That nothing’s wasted in God’s hands
When we respond to his commands
Then we shall hear him say, “Well done”
To those who worked under the Son.
(Ben Witherington III in “Work” - pg 80)
