Work Archives - Pastor Rich Eddy

Fingers To the Bone, Part 2

Welcome back! Previously, I presented some of the things I have been thinking about in regards to the subject of work. I left off by saying that work is about much more than just earning a paycheck. Today, I would like to talk about five reasons why work is good (as long as you are not forced to work your fingers to the bone!). Consider these benefits that come from our work:

Our work provides financial rewards to those who work and their families. Work transforms our efforts into tangible rewards with which we can purchase goods and services we need and want. By working we are trading our time and effort for money or some other means of exchange. The Bible recognizes employment for gain. Jesus’ parable about workers in the field centers around workers being paid for their labors (Matthew 20). Luke 10:7 says, “The laborer deserves his wages.” 1 Timothy 5:18 speaks about fair pay when it says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” And 2 Timothy 3:6 says, “The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.” The Bible warns those who would cheat workers of their just pay in passages like James 5:4, “Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.” On the flip side, the Bible also warns those too lazy to work: “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). Work for pay and pay for work are good things.
Our work provides goods and services to other people. As I said above, without workers, we wouldn’t be able to buy any goods or secure any services. But when we work, we produce things and services that other people need to live and enhance their lives. The farmer works hard and produces the food that many people need to sustain life. The electricians install and service lines to provide our homes and businesses with electricity. Teachers instruct our children and watch them a good part of each day so we can work to provide other people with their needs. Just as a tree produces fruit, so a person provides fruits of his or her labors to benefit others. (Ephesians 4:28 says, “. . . work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.”
Our work is spiritually and emotionally rewarding. It just feels good to work hard at something and see what you have accomplished. There are sayings about “a good day’s work” and “a job well done” that speak to the satisfaction that comes from hard work. It satisfies us to see our work do good for others, or else why would so many people volunteer to serve others without pay? We feel happier to help others without expecting any remuneration in return. (Besides, no one could afford me if I charged what I am worth!)
Our work is important for our socialization. Where do we learn how to work with other people, get along with them, handle disagreements, celebrate joint accomplishments, and learn communication skills except in places where we work? Tough bosses can frustrate and anger us, but we learn how to do our jobs while placating them. Lazy co-workers? We learn how to deal with them, too. Rude customers? We gain experience from every one of them. Even if we don’t like them, we can thank God for the “on the job training.” Ecclesiastes 4:9 commends working with other people: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.”
Our work is for the Lord. Whether we work for a company, a corporation, a school, a government, or are self-employed, our ultimate employer is God. Our good works, paid or volunteer, glorify him above all, so we are called to serve him in all our work. In the Old Testament, Proverbs 16:3 promises, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” In the New Testament, Colossians 3:23-24 tells us, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” Summarizing, our Lord Jesus taught us, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

So you see, whatever work we do here on earth, it is much more important than the paycheck we may receive for doing it. Our work benefits ourselves, others, and even glorifies God. Jesus tells us that now is the time to work, “while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work” (John 9:4). For one day our labors will cease: “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9-10).

Until that day, work hard! But wear gloves if you have to mix any concrete!*

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Philippians 4:13; 1 Peter 4:10.

*See my previous blog for the story behind this.

Fingers To the Bone

Have you ever heard the expression, “He worked his fingers to the bone.”? I thought about that phrase once when working at a YMCA in New Jersey. It was my first day on the job, with day camp set to start two days later, but unfortunately, our swimming pool had been shut down by the state inspectors since the water was green and sections of the pool tile had come loose and fallen into the water. I immediately drove to the store, bought some chlorine and a bag of Quikrete concrete, and spent the entire next day mixing the concrete and re-attaching the tiles to the pool deck. The good news was, my work was successful, and we passed our new inspection so the camp could begin. The bad news was, I had mixed the concrete bare-handed for twelve hours, and my finger tips were raw and bleeding. I had almost literally worked my fingers to the bone.

I’ve been thinking about the subject of “work” lately. Maybe it’s all the “Help Wanted” and “Now Hiring” signs that adorn every store and restaurant in town. Maybe it’s the employment/unemployment numbers reported on the news each month. Or maybe it’s hearing people call for a guaranteed income for everyone, whether they work or not.

Whatever the reason, I have been thinking about work, its purpose and benefits, its blessings and dangers, and how it fits into God’s (and therefore our) plans. So following are some of my thoughts, not in any particular order (because it would take work to organize them!).

Work is not a curse, but the natural condition of life. Before mankind fell into sin and received God’s curse, God had already assigned work for us to do. Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Therefore, Adam and Eve didn’t just lie around all day eating grapes brought to them by monkeys; they had work to do. It was after the Fall that God made their work more difficult and dangerous. God cursed Adam, saying, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food” (Genesis 3:17-19).
The natural state of mankind is poverty. It takes work to create goods, deliver services, practice trade, and meet basic needs. People create wealth by work, transforming their labor into things of value, such as money, which can then be used to purchase the fruit of other people’s labors.
God created the world and everything in it in six days, and rested on the seventh day (Genesis2:2-3). He took his time; being all-powerful he didn’t need that long to do his work. What he did was set the pattern for us: six days of work, one day of rest. (Work. Rinse. Repeat.). While work is good, it does take a toll on our physical and mental energy, so a day off each week is a healthy way to recharge. Jesus explained the purpose of the Sabbath rest when he said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). God commanded us to take that Sabbath rest every week; because Christ is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:8), if we are in him by faith, we fulfill that commandment (though we still benefit from taking a weekly break!).
I grew up in a town that observed what were called, “Blue Laws.” This meant that stores and other businesses were closed on Sundays for the Christian Sabbath. I still remember the time in the 1960s when some pastors led protests against the first stores that opened on Sunday; nowadays, Sunday is hardly different from any other day. I admit that my wife and I do sometimes shop on Sundays, though technically, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week: Saturday. So we’re okay . . .
As a pastor, I worked a reverse Sabbath system: I worked one day a week and rested six days. Or at least, that’s what people thought . . .
Some people believe that guaranteed income, that is a check from the government, is a good substitute for a paycheck. After all, if everyone had enough money, they wouldn’t have to work, right? Setting aside basic issues of economics for now, my question is: What good is that money going to do you if everyone else gets their check and decides not to work either? What good is your money if no one makes any goods for you to buy? What if no one is available to provide the services you want or need? What if you are hurt or sick and all the former medical people are sitting at home with their checks?

Work has more purposes to it than just earning money, as important as that is. I think we can identify five reasons why work is beneficial, but because I have already worked my fingers to the bone writing this, I will talk about the purposes of work in my next blog: “Fingers To the Bone, Part 2.” See you there!

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Deuteronomy 5:13-14; Psalm 90:17.

The Dock of the Bay

One of my favorite R & B songs is Otis Redding’s 1968 hit song, “(Sitting on) The Dock of the Bay.” It’s a song from back when pop songs were easy to sing along to (even for me), even though the words were somewhat sad. The lyrics speak of someone whose life hasn’t gone very well. That person laments that he has nothing going his way, and nothing to live for, except to spend his time “sitting on the dock of the bay.” The chorus says it this way:

I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooo, I’m just sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Wastin’ time.

I thought of this song this afternoon as I sat out on our patio, watching some birds fly around our back yard. In a way, I was sitting on the “dock of our bay,” relaxing and watching the “tides of birds” fly away. But was I wasting time by doing so?

How I spend my free time has always been an issue for me. I was raised by a father who never stopped working, either at his office or at home. He seldom watched TV (Yes, we had a TV way back when I was a kid – though it was in black and white and only got in 7 stations – four from Chicago and three from Milwaukee). Instead, he was always working to fix something around the house. If I were available, I could always hear my dad calling me to lend my “strong arms” to his tasks. On a day off school he would wake me up early with the command, “Time to get up and pay for your lodging!” My mom also would encourage me to work hard, telling me to “put some elbow grease into it!”

Later, I saw my work with youth as a calling from God, even before I became a pastor. My work demanded many hours on the job, and preparation time at home; even more, I carried its concerns with me all the time. Therefore, I would feel a bit guilty when I spent my free time doing non-work related things. Once, I met with my boss at work (who was a devout Christian and even more committed to his work than I) and talked about spending my free time doing things totally unrelated to my work (specifically, rock and mineral collecting). I told him I was feeling guilty about it. His answer was: it is good to take a break, and he wished he could relax and get away like I was doing. I took his advice, and found such play times relaxing (even if some guilt remained).

Fast forward to recent years. As many of you know, I have spent several years’ worth of time in a wheelchair, due to a broken foot and resulting ulcers. As one who was always able to do things around the house, I felt bad having to turn over much of my work to my wife. All the yard work, repairs, car maintenance, and vacation/travel prep fell on her or others. Even lifting my chair into the car was easier for her to do; we took the wheelchair with us when we traded in my manual car for an automatic so Karen could test lifting it into the new car. She is stronger than you think.

The other big life change which has caused me to look at how I spend my time is my retirement 2 1/2 years ago. As I anticipated that event, I saw it not as a chance to spend my time “sitting on the dock of the bay,” but rather as freeing me up to do other productive things. Besides catching up on projects around the house which I had put off due to a lack of free time or temporary disabilities (you know, those “I’ll set this aside until I have more time” projects), I planned to do four things:

1. Read from the Bible, classic literature, and history books every day.

2. Learn, relearn, and practice various languages an hour each day. I wanted to improve my fluency in ones I had studied, and learn new ones.

3. Exercise an hour each day.

4. Write something, such as this blog and some books.

So, how have I been doing? The results are mixed. I do read some every day (most recently a book about the Trojan War written in the third century AD). I read from my Greek New Testament – working on # 1 and # 2 above. Just recently I began reviewing my French. And as for writing, I did finish two books and am writing this blog a couple times a month. I also took up crossword puzzles which helps my vocabulary and memory. So far so good.

Now, as for exercise . . . not so much. Now that my foot has healed, I am walking again which should help, and have started using a rowing machine to strengthen my arms and legs, but both workouts have been minimal. I definitely need to do more.

As I ponder how I spend my time, now that it is almost all “free time,” I realize that I do waste a lot of it. Watching cat videos and movies online, playing video games, taking daily naps, and sitting on the patio – all take time that could be better spent – or should I say, more productively spent.

Now that I’ve laid out my present activities (other than some get-togethers with friends and too many doctor visits and procedures), I’d like to share a few observations about leisure time:

1. Work is good. God assigned work to our first parents, even before they sinned. They were commanded to maintain the Garden in which God placed them (Genesis 2:5, 15). It was after Adam and Eve sinned that the work became much more difficult, literally requiring blood, sweat and toil (Genesis 3:17-19). All work which benefits people is a holy vocation, a calling from God. Think of all the goods and services that benefit our lives and are produced by other people who faithfully carry out their work.

2. Rest is also good. God instituted the Sabbath rest, not only to honor and remember that God created all there is, but also for our benefit to provide us with needed rest. We need periods of rest to recharge our batteries, sort our thoughts and allow emotions to cool, not to mention to recover physically from bodily stresses and injuries. Jesus himself said “the Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27) and took time away from the constant press of the crowds to recover. He needed such a break when John the Baptist was executed, to get away and pray. The fact that the Bible calls eternal life our ultimate Sabbath rest shows that God’s ultimate blessing for us includes a rest from our labors (Hebrews 4:9-10: “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”).

3. We have a limited amount of time in this life. Back when I turned 13, I realized I was no longer a child, and began to calculate what percentage of my life was behind me and ahead of me. I came up with 18.5 % used and 81.5 % to go. What a cheery adolescent game. Other parents worried about their kids smoking or drinking, mine had an actuary for a son. I have to say that even before retiring, I gave up that little exercise as a bit too scary. But no matter what percentage of expected life spans we have left, all our time is limited, so the ways we spend free time can never be undone; that time is gone and we are all moving forward to the day when time no longer matters.

4. So how we spend our time is important. Scripture says that we will one day have to give an account for everything we do (Romans 14:12, Hebrews 4:13). I believe that includes our actions toward others, our stewardship of the resources God has given us, and how we use the time we are allotted on this earth. Now, I’m not saying every minute has to be spent in strenuous labor without a moment to rest; rather, I’m just saying let’s be purposeful in how we spend our limited time. There are many wonderful things we can do, and having the time to do them is a gift from God: spending time with loved ones; socializing with friends and Christian brothers and sisters; playing sports (and working out on a rowing machine); traveling; learning and teaching; volunteering to help others in the community; finishing home repairs and improvement projects; keeping the garden (as God commanded Adam and Eve to do); worshiping, praying, and studying God’s Word; and yes, even sitting on the dock of the bay. As with all our work, consider that all our time is dedicated to God and his glory. It is for him that we work, and for him that we play.

So go and enjoy your time, but be intentional about it. Don’t just let one moment slip into another, assuming you have plenty of time ahead of you to eventually “get around to it.” Don’t let the days pass by leaving you to wonder, “Where did the time go?”

As for me, now that my blog is done, I have to decide what to do next: grab a snack, apprender francais, or defend the world against space aliens. Maybe I’ll just go back to sitting on the dock of my patio and watch the birds go by. How about you?

May the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.

Read: Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:12-15, Mark 2:23-27