Making The Most Of My Life: Six Ways We Waste Our Day
Part 6 of 6: Idle Working
II Thessalonians 3:6-8
"Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is living in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you, we did not eat any one’s bread without paying, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you." 2 Thessalonians 3:6-8 (RSV)
Labor And It’s Two Extremes
- "Work either expands or contracts in order to fill the time available." - Parkinson’s Law
Confucius said, "Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life."
- "There are two kinds of people, those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group - there is less competition." - Indira Ghandi
- One for our retirees, "Cessation of work is not accompanied by cessation of expenses." - Cato The Elder
- "I am his mistress. His work is his wife." - Marion Javits
- "I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours." - Jerome K. Jerome
- "Every job has drudgery, whether it is in the home, in the school, or in the office. The first secret of happiness is the recognition of this fundamental fact." - M. C. Mcintosh
- "When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die." - Eleanor Roosevelt
- "A woman’s work is never done, especially the part she asks her husband to do." - Source Unknown
[SermonCentral.com. Work, Colossians 3:23-24. by Gary Bennett.]
Two Extremes: Sluggards
Workaholics
Sluggard
Motto: "Thank God it’s Friday"
-cut corners
-shirk duties
-put their work upon others
-procrastinate on everything
-anytime work is involved, it’s going to be a bad day.
-sentiments of Alexander, the main character in Judith Viorst’s book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. His story opens with these words: "I went to sleep with gum in my mouth and now there’s gum in my hair, and when I got out of bed this morning I tripped on the skateboard and by mistake I dropped my sweater in the sink while the water was running, and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I think I’ll move to Australia. In the car pool Mrs. Gibson let Becky have a seat by the window. Audrey and Elliott got seats by the window, too. I said I was being smushed. I said, "If I don’t get a seat by the window, I’m going to be carsick and throw up!" No one answered. I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. And that’s just the way it turned out. That night I told my Mom, "it has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. My mom says days are like that. Even in Australia. [SermonCentral.com. How to Survive Work, Luke 5:1-11. by David Zachrich.]
"The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! There is a lion in the streets!" As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish; it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth." (Proverb 26:13-15 (RSV)
Workaholic
Motto: "Thank God it’s Monday"
-long hours at work
-lacks sleep
-jobs are never done (tasks get finished, but the job is never done)
-Proverb 6:10-11 to the extreme
"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man." (Proverb 6:10-11 (RSV)
-neglect Psalm 127:2
"It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep." Psalm 127:2 (RSV)
Minirth and Meier, two Christian psychiatrists, give us a picture of the workaholic’s true nature and its results:
"… the selfishness of the perfectionist (workaholic) is much more subtle. While he is out in society saving humanity at a work pace of eighty to a hundred hours a week, he is selfishly ignoring his wife and children. He is burying his emotions and working like a computerized robot. He helps mankind partially out of love and compassion, but mostly as an unconscious compensation for his insecurity, and as a means of fulfilling both his strong need for society’s approval and his driving urge to be perfect. He is self-critical and deep within himself feels inferior. He feels like a nobody, and spends the bulk of his life working at a frantic pace to prove to himself that he is really not (as he suspects deep within) a nobody. In his own eyes, and in the eyes of society, he is the epitome of human dedication. … He becomes angry when his wife and children place demands on him. He can’t understand how they could have the nerve to call such an unselfish, dedicated servant a selfish husband and father. … In reality, his wife and children are correct, and they are suffering severely because of his subtle selfishness." [SermonCentral.com. A Word for Workaholics, Psalm 127. -Frank B. Minirth and Paul D. Meier, Happiness Is a Choice (Baker Book House: Grand Rapids, 1978), p. 56.]
Sometimes being a "middle of the roader" isn’t all that bad.
Idle Working -vs- Productive Working
Oxymoron, but some people achieve it.
1. Working With No Set Goals Or Purpose
-job hoppers -never satisfied with where they are, always looking into the horizon
People who fell into their occupation by chance; go day by day with no goals
or ambitions
"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." Romans 12:6-8 (RSV)
"And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers" Ephesians 4:11 (RSV)
Other occupations can be added: Doctors, lawyers, trash collectors, clerks, cooks, etc.
Productive Working: Work Towards A Purpose
2. Working Perfunctorily
Doing only what we have to
"So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31 (RSV)
"Whatever your task, work heartily, as serving the Lord and not men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward; you are serving the Lord Christ." Colossians 3:23-24 (RSV)
Productive Working: Work with ‘Gusto’
-Peppermint Patty commercial "I Get the Sensation"
-if your heart is not in it, your life will be miserable and your work lacking and careless
3. Working Without Consideration of God
"And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Colossians 3:17 (RSV)
Martin Luther wrote, "The maid who sweeps her kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays – not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps, but because God loves clean floors. The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship." [How To Survive Work, by David Zachrich.]
It is a misperception to delineate between the sacred and the secular. God can use my job skills the same as he can use my ministry skills. God gave me my spiritual gifts, heart desires, abilities, personality [SHAPE] to be used for his glory.
Ecclesiastes 9:10 says, "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going."
In the book, The Practice Of The Presence Of God by brother Lawrence, the author writes:
"The most effective way Brother Lawrence had for communicating with God was to simply do his ordinary work. He did this obediently, out of a pure love of God, purifying it as much as was humanly possible. He believed it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our prayer unites us with Him in our quiet times."
[The Practice Of The Presence Of God by Brother Lawrence. (Whitaker House, Springdale, PA, 1982). p20.]
There is no separation of secular and sacred. God wants our worship on Monday-Saturday as much as on Sunday. When we leave church on Sunday we do not leave God behind to continue our ‘normal’ lives.
Productive Working: Work In A Spirit Of Worship
4. Working In Isolation
You cant’ do all the work
"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Again, if two lie together, they are warm; but how can one be warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him. A threefold cord is not quickly broken." Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (RSV)
I Corinthians 12:14-26 -"eye only"
Productive Working: Work In Partnership
5. Working Towards My Own End
"For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor." John 4:37-38 (RSV)
"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are equal, and each shall receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building." 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 (RSV)
Give consideration to those who came before, and those who will come after. No one can, or needs to, reinvent the wheel. We stand upon the foundation of those who have gone before and we add to that foundation for those who will come after, both in ministry and in our occupational work.
Productive Working: Work In The Spirit Of Participation
6. Working In Our Own Authority
"Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God." 1 Peter 2:16 (RSV)
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." Philippians 2:5-7 (RSV)
"Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of heart, as to Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good any one does, he will receive the same again from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free." Ephesians 6:5-8 (RSV)
Productive Working: Work In Submission To God
"Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." Psalm 127:1 (RSV)
7. Work Without End
"A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man." Proverb 6:10-11 (RSV)
"An idle mind is the devil’s workshop"
-our wok ethic is to keep busy
God’s Example
"And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done." Genesis 2:2 (RSV)
"But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working still, and I am working."" John 5:17 (RSV)
God’s Command
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Exodus 20:8-11 (RSV)
"And he said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while." For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat." Mark 6:31 (RSV)
"So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should enjoy his work, for that is his lot; who can bring him to see what will be after him?" Ecclesiastes 3:22 (RSV)
"You shall tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from the field year by year. And before the LORD your God, in the place which he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock; that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always. And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to bring the tithe, when the LORD your God blesses you, because the place is too far from you, which the LORD your God chooses, to set his name there, then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses, and spend the money for whatever you desire, oxen, or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves; and you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household." Deuteronomy 14:22-26 (RSV)
Productive Working: Take Time To Enjoy Your Work With Rest
Conclusion:
Productive Working
-Work towards a purpose
-Work with ‘gusto’
-Work in a spirit of worship
-Work in partnership
-Work in the spirit of participation
-Work in submission to God
-Take Time To Enjoy Your Work With Rest
