The Gift of Work

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. Colossians 3:23-24 NIV

Happy Labor Day!  One day a year the United States celebrates a national holiday called Labor Day. Signed into law by President Glover Cleveland in 1894, the day acknowledges the labor and economic achievements of the country. Traditionally you do not have to buy gifts for others, seldom do you send greeting cards and if you are in retail or fast food, it is a busy work day. Labor Day has become the semi-official end of summer and the best day to buy a new mattress!

Mark Twain is most often identified with the quote, “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” However, others, from Confucius to a Princeton University professor, can claim the quote. The sentiment sounds good, but it still requires much effort like anything you value and enjoy doing. Benjamin Franklin would have had a slightly different way of saying it, “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”

This Labor Day finds the current labor force participation rate at 62.6% according to the U.S. Labor Department official statistics. It is a big change to realize I am no longer part of this percentage rate! Work has been an intricate part of my life since age 15 when I entered the paid labor force working on Saturdays and after school in a farm equipment manufacturing company.

I thought I had hit pay dirt earning a whopping $1.60 per hour.  I never considered work a dirty word, though I did get dirty at work. There was satisfaction and contentment in those hours of sweeping the floors and anything else I had to do. Work brought in money but its value was far greater than the $1.60 that I made. Theodore Roosevelt said it well, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

Though President Cleveland may have signed a law into effect creating Labor Day, it was God who created the very dignity and purpose of work.  Once God had finished the task of creating, He gave Adam the responsibility and gift of work to take care of his creation.  “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” (Gen 2:15 NIV) Adam would get to “work hard at work worth doing.”

Labor Day allows us a great opportunity to reflect upon the value of work. It is a value that is not limited to a monetary amount but to the soul’s dignity as a person. “All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.” –Pope Paul VI

Work can be seen as a gift or a mundane burden of survival, depending upon perspective. The story of Three Bricklayers is a rich story that has been told in different forms over the years but is based upon a true event. Following the devasting 1666 fire that leveled London, one of the projects assigned to architect Christopher Wren was the rebuilding of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Visiting the site one day he observed three bricklayers on a scaffold working diligently. Wren asked the first one, what are you doing? The man responded, “I’m a bricklayer. I’m working hard laying bricks to feed my family.”

Wren asked the same question to the next man who responded, “I’m a builder. I’m building a wall.” Finally, Wren asked the third man, “What are you doing?” I’m a cathedral builder. I’m building a great cathedral to the Almighty.” Same wall, the same work but with three totally different perspectives.

Did Christopher Wren actually ask the bricklayers the question? I don’t know if the encounter is true or just one of the thousands of urban myths circulated online and by motivational speakers. The origin of the quote seems to come from a book published in 1927 by Bruce Barton.

What I do know is that Christopher Wren was a renowned architect in England, that the Great Fire of London reduced the city to a smoking desert, and that of the 52 churches that Wren designed, St. Paul’s was his crowning work.  I have walked through St. Paul’s Cathedral admiring this magnificent work.

I’m sure there were lots of bricklayers and builders who dug the ditches, built the walls, and painted the structure. No doubt some saw their work simply as a job that put food on the table for their families, which was a good thing. However, I can imagine a few who saw their work as Kingdom work. As they bent down to pick up a brick and then lay it upon the next brick, they were offering to God their work as an act of worship.

There was no doubt that Wren saw St. Paul’s as more than another construction job. Upon his death, Wren was buried at St. Paul’s and his eldest son wrote the inscription engraved upon the black granite stone over his grave. “Here in its foundations lies the architect of this church and city, Christopher Wren, who lived beyond ninety years, not for his own profit but for the public good. Reader, if you seek his monument—look around you. Died 25 Feb. 1723, age 91.”

I don’t know what season of life you find yourself in. For a few it may be starting in their first job, others gaining seniority, others having to find a new job, others looking to retire soon, and many already in retirement. Wherever you are in your work journey, whether past, present, or future, count it as a blessing. Enjoy God’s gift of work and “May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.” (Psalm 90:16-17

God is great!

Re-posting article from Sept 3, 2023. Connie and I are in Kenya for the next two weeks with a group from our church working in the Eldoret area. I pray your Labor Day celebration will be a blessed and fun day.