Kung Fu Panda is a movie about a panda named Po who desperately wants to learn kung fu. His father, though, wants him to take over the family business someday. In one scene, Po is late coming down the stairs from his room, where he was working on his kung fu moves, to work in his father’s restaurant. Take a look (Show King Fu Panda Noodle Chat scene).
"Sorry, Dad," Po says as he descends the stairs from his room to the kitchen of his father's restaurant.
"Sorry doesn't make the noodles," his father answers. "What were you doing up there? All that noise?"
"Oh, nothing," Po answers. "Just had a crazy dream."
His father suddenly looks interested. "What were you dreaming about?" he asks.
"What was I—? Uhhhh." Po struggles to find an answer because he was dreaming about kung fu. He knows his father would disapprove of this, so he lies: "I was dreaming about—uh—noodles."
"Noodles?" his father asks, now very interested. "You were really dreaming about noodles?"
"Yeah," Po says, attempting to smile. "What else would I be dreaming about?" He is serving soup to a customer and accidentally drops a Chinese throwing star into the bowl. "Oh, careful!" he says to the customer. "That soup is … sharp!"
Po's father doesn't notice. "Oh, happy day!" he cries. "My son, finally having the Noodle Dream! You don't know how long I have been waiting for this moment!" He places an official restaurant cap on Po's head.
"This is a sign, Po!" his father exclaims.
Po is confused. "Uh—a sign of what?"
"You are almost ready to be entrusted with the secret ingredient to my Secret Ingredient Soup! And then you will fulfill your destiny and take over the restaurant—just as I took it over from my father, who took it over from his father, who won it from a friend in a game of mahjong."
"Dad, Dad, Dad," Po says, trying to stem his father's enthusiasm. "It was just a dream."
"No, it was the dream. We are noodle folk, Po. Broth runs through our veins!"
"But, Dad," Po asks, "didn't you ever want to do something else? Something besides noodles?"
"Actually," his father admits, "when I was young and crazy, I thought about running away and learning how to make tofu."
"So why didn't you?" Po asks.
"Because it was a stupid dream," his father replies. "Can you imagine me making tofu? Ha! No, we all have our place in this world. Mine is here, and yours is—."
"I know," Po interrupts. "Mine is here."
"No," his father answers, "it's at tables 2, 5, 7, and 12. Service with a smile!" (Kung Fu Panda, DreamWorks Animation, 2008, directed by Mark Osborne and John Stevenson, 00:02:29 - 00:05:18, www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlOpjb8rJN0; www.PreachingToday.com).
Poor Po! He wants to do something meaningful with his life, and he is stuck in a meaningless job. A lot of people feel that way about their work, maybe even some of you.
So what do you do when your job seems pointless? What do you do to find meaning and joy in your work? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ecclesiastes 2, Ecclesiastes 2, where Solomon in his search for meaning talks about work.
Ecclesiastes 2:18-19 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity (ESV).
One of the greatest kings in Israel, the great King Solomon hates his work, because somebody else is going to take over all the benefits of his hard work. He’ll die someday and a fool could squander all he toiled to accomplish.
And, in fact, that is exactly what happened. After Solomon died, Reheboam, his son, succeeded him on the throne and plunged the nation into civil war with one foolish decision. Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel seceded and formed their own nation (1 Kings 12:1-24). Solomon’s successor had reduced the great nation Solomon had worked so hard to build to a mere shadow of its former self.
All of Solomon’s work was in vain. It was but a vapor, here one minute and gone the next. And the same could happen to you. So, if you want to find meaning in your work…
DON’T WORK FOR POSTERITY.
Don’t toil just to leave a legacy to your descendants. Don’t sweat and slave just so your children can enjoy the fruit of your labor, because they could squander it all with one foolish decision.
Solomon hated his work for that reason, and it left him hopeless.
Ecclesiastes 2:20-21 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil (ESVP.
Solomon despaired of his labor, because he suffered on the job only to let someone else enjoy the fruit of his suffering and toil. For him, he was wasting his time and contributing to a “great evil.” Solomon found it morally repugnant that someone else should benefit from his labor. He considered it reprehensible that someone else should enjoy life at his expense.
Back in 1912, Willa and Charles Bruce were one of the first African American landowners in Los Angeles County. They had purchased a plot of oceanside property and opened one of the only racially integrated resorts in the area.
Many people, who were excluded from other resorts, appreciated “Bruce’s Beach.” The local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan did not. Family historian Duane Shephard said, “They started harassing my family around 1920. They burned a cross. They threw burning mattresses under the porch of one of the buildings.”
By 1924, the city used the process of eminent domain as a pretext to seize the property from the Bruce family and turn it into a public park. L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said, “These people were terrorized and kicked out of a community where they were trying to live peacefully. Here were some Black lives, and they didn't matter 100 years ago. But I think they matter now.” Hahn made those comments in a news conference announcing the decision from the local city council to return that land to the descendants of Willa and Charles Bruce.
The county gave the property back to the Bruce family descendants, then leased the property from them, in order to keep it accessible to the community while providing income for the family. It also authorized $350,000 to spend on public art commemorating the family (Staff, “Manhattan Beach property seized from Black family more than a century ago may be returned,” CBS, 4-9-21; www.PreachingToday.com).
The Bruce family descendants appreciated what the local city council did to rectify the injustice; but sadly, that kind of thing happens all too often. It could happen to you! You could work hard to develop a profitable business, but somebody else could benefit at your expense. “This too is vanity and a great evil,” Solomon says in verse 21.
So, if you want to find meaning in your work, don’t work for posterity. Likewise…
DON’T WORK FOR PROFIT, either.
Don’t toil just for the pay. Don’t sweat and slave just for what you think you might gain from it.
Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity (ESV).
Sorrow, vexation, and restlessness is all you get for your work. Anguish, anger, and agitation is your pay. Oh, you might get a little money, but at what cost? The pain of work far outweighs any profit.
When Adam sinned, God told him, “Cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you” (Genesis 3:17-18).
God cursed women with pain in childbirth, and He cursed men with pain in work. So pain has been a part of work ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the garden.
On a typical Monday morning at a cloud services company in Denver, 29-year-old project manager Kieran Tie crouched in the emergency stairwell. He felt like “absolute trash” that day. He could no longer bring himself to sit through pointless management meetings and pretend to (care) about on-demand enterprise data storage.
In the preceding months, he’d found it increasingly difficult to complete the simplest of tasks. Plagued with insomnia and regularly forgetting meals, he’d developed a remarkably short temper. He had stormed out of meetings when he disagreed with higher-ups, something he’d never done before in a professional setting.
Tie said, “I felt like a failure because I didn’t know what to do.” The predicament confounded him because he had a great job at a growing company with talented colleagues. The hours, like the compensation (low six-figures, plus bonus) were “very fair,” and he could ride his bike to the office, 10 minutes from his house. And yet, as he rocked weeping in the fetal position in a stairwell underneath a fire extinguisher for the better part of an hour, it was clear something needed to change.
Tie is not alone. The World Health Organization recently listed “burnout” as an “occupational phenomenon” in the International Classification of Diseases.
94 percent of American workers say they’re stressed at work. 75 percent of Millennials believe they’re more stressed than their parents, and 80 percent say they’re in the midst of a quarter-life crisis (C. Brian Smith, “An Entire Industry Is Cropping Up to Deal With Millennial Burnout,” MEL Magazine, 2-4-20; www. PreachingToday.com).
Welcome to the world of work, which is full of sorrow, vexation, and restlessness, just like Solomon said.
In 1974, Louis (Studs) Terkel, a famous Chicago author, interviewed hundreds of people about their jobs and recorded what they said in his book, Working. While his research is nearly 50 years old, what he said in the introduction resonates with many people today. He wrote:
“This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body. It is about ulcers as well as accidents, about shouting matches as well as fistfights, about nervous breakdowns as well as kicking the dog around. It is, above all (or beneath all), about daily humiliations. To survive the day is triumph enough for the walking wounded among the great many of us…”
Terkel continues, “It is about a search, too, for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than [apathy]; in short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying.”
Then Terkel quotes what God said when he cursed the ground and concluded, “Once man sinned, God made work—even good work—hard. He did it so that we would be impelled to turn to him when the thorns get to be too much for us” (Studs Terkel, Working, Pantheon Books, 1974, Introduction; www.Preaching Today.com).
That, my friends, is the only way to find meaning in your work. Don’t work for posterity (or for others). Don’t work for profit (or for yourself). No! If you want to find meaning in your work…
WORK FOR THE LORD.
Do your job as if He is your boss. Labor to please Him in all you do.
Ecclesiastes 2:24-25 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? (ESV)
When the thorns get to be too much, turn to the Lord. He will give you the ability to enjoy your work. He will make it possible for you to find joy and meaning even in menial tasks.
Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
It's the reason why Jesus came. He came to redeem people from the curse of sin. He came to pay the price to set you free from meaningless toil. His death on the cross was that price. After that, He rose from the dead. And now, He offers an eternal, abundant life to all who put their lives in His hands.
Please, if you haven’t done it already, turn to the Lord. Commit your life to Him. Trust Christ with your life, and let Him infuse your work with joy and meaning.
Ecclesiastes 2:26 For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind (ESV).
God gives meaningful work to those who please Him, but He gives the sinner meaningless toil, whose work only benefits another.
Such is the story of Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 1872, Gen. William Jackson Palmer moved to the foot of Pikes Peak, where he wanted to build a castle for his young bride, whom he called “Queen.” But Queen’s health declined in the thin air of the Rockies. So, she and their daughters moved to the East Coast and then to England, while Palmer remained in Colorado Springs. The long-distance marriage ended when she died in 1894 at the age of 44.
Palmer kept up work on the castle, completing it in 1906, but he had little time left to enjoy it. In 1906, Palmer was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident. He died three years later.
After his death, his daughters tried to give Glen Eyrie to the city, but city officials declined because of the cost of maintenance. So they sold the land and castle to some Oklahoma businessmen for $150,000, They envisioned a golf course resort with a tavern and up to 150 luxury homes.
With World War I raging across the ocean, few people were interested in such luxuries, and the businessmen sold Glen Eyrie in 1922 to Alexander Smith Cochran, a millionaire rug maker from New York, for $450,000. Cochran doubled the size of the estate and built the Pink House for his family’s vacation home. He shuttered the castle just three years later (1925) and it fell into disrepair. After Cochran died in 1929, Glen Eyrie remained on the market for nine years.
Then, in 1938, George W. Strake, who made his fortune in oil, came from Texas to make Glen Eyrie his vacation home. He expanded the Pink House and reopened the castle for parties. But just 12 years later (1950), Strake put Glen Eyrie back on the market and sold it at a loss to Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators, for $300,000.
Since then, for seven decades, The Navigators have turned Glen Eyrie into a well-known spiritual retreat, now hosting 350 conferences and 46,000 visitors a year, as well as the international headquarters of the ministry and its publishing arm (R. Scott Rappold, The Gazette, November 3, 2013; The Rocky Past of the Hidden Castle in Colorado Springs, www.outtherecolorado.com, Oct 24, 2018).
Their mission is “to know Christ, make Him known, and help others do the same,” which they have been doing since Trotman founded The Navigators in 1933. Today, they are in over 100 countries, bringing hope and purpose to others through what they call “Life-to-Life discipleship” (www.navigators.org).
Think about it. One businessman after another owned and developed Glen Eyrie for a few short years, only for it to end up in the hands of a Christian ministry now for seven decades. It's just the way Solomon put it: God gives to the sinner “the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God” (Ecclesiastes 2:26).
“This is vanity and a striving after wind” for the unbeliever. But for the believer, God gives “wisdom and knowledge and joy.”
So, if you want to find meaning in your work, don’t work for posterity or profit. Instead, work for the Lord. Put Him at the center of your life. For “in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Years ago (1988), James Dobson spoke to the graduating class at Seattle Pacific University. He encouraged them to use their talents but warned them that disillusionment may set in between the ages of 35 and 50. “This is commonly called the mid-life crisis,” he told them, which he said “is more a phenomenon of a wrong value system than it is the age group in which it occurs. All of a sudden you realize the ladder you've been climbing is leaning against the wrong wall” (James Dobson in a commencement address given at Seattle Pacific University, June, 1988, quoted in Christianity Today; www.PreachingToday.com).
In all your work to climb the ladder of success, make sure the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Make sure your life, with all its work, is leaning against the Lord. Then you will not be disappointed when you get to the top.
