Hard Work

How many of the things that we call hard work really are hard work? If you stop and think about them very long, you realize that a great deal of the things we call hard work really are not all that hard; they are more of an inconvenience than hard. For some reason we have allowed ourselves to believe that if we don’t like something, that makes it hard, or if we don’t want to do something, that makes it hard. Our culture continues to feed us the message that life and work should be easy. This is just not true! Work is just work. Deep, right? Work is defined as – “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result.” Work requires effort and energy, so then hard work requires extended amounts of effort and energy. By this time you are probably thinking, “Okay, Tim, thanks for defining work and hard work for us, but what is your point?” Let me explain. Over the past year or so I have been observing our culture’s fascination with doing less. At first I thought that this could be a good thing, that people would work less and spend more time on relationships and developing themselves. But what really is happening is people are become more self absorbed and lazy. (Sorry for being so blunt.) This made me ask the question, how does God want us to view work? A few phrases of verses from 2 Thessalonians 3 came to mind, “If anyone isn’t willing to work he shouldn’t eat.” “People should work quietly to provide for themselves.” “Do not grow weary in doing good [work].” Or how about these few from Proverbs 6 and 10, “A little sleep, a little slumber…and poverty will come like a robber.” “Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches.” If we think about work from God’s point of view, we realize that work is a good thing. God gave Adam and Eve work in the garden before sin. Then their sin made work harder for them; it did not make their work bad.
I believe that God created us to work, and some of the character of God is revealed in us by our work. So instead of trying to find ways to avoid work, maybe we should be looking for ways we can bring glory to God through our work. Maybe we should look at hard work as an opportunity for us to use our God given abilities for his honor.
How have you been viewing your work lately?

-Pastor Tim