How to enjoy your labor …

Just about any week of any year you will hear people bemoan going back to work on Mondays and longing for Fridays to arrive quickly.

With such groanings and longings, you would think most people don’t enjoy their work, but you might be surprised to learn that isn’t the case. The American Enterprise Institutde (AEI) reported the following just last year:

“Surveys show that the vast majority of workers are satisfied with their jobs. There has been little change in the responses since survey organizations started measuring workers’ opinions regularly in the 1970s. Ninety-one percent of employed adults told Gallup they were completely or somewhat satisfied with their jobs in 2016. Only 9 percent said they were somewhat or completely dissatisfied with them. Across all income breaks, at least 70 percent said they were somewhat or completely satisfied with their jobs. Results from the National Opinion Research Center on satisfaction with work have also been positive and stable over time. Forty-five years ago, in NORC’s 1972 question, 48 percent said they were very satisfied and 37 percent moderately satisfied. Those responses in 2016 were virtually identical, 49 and 37 percent, respectively.”

A nugget of information buried deep in AEI’s report might reveal an important reason why so many people are at least “somewhat satisfied” with their work:

“Sixty-six percent in an April 2014 YouGov online survey said they would rather have a job that they loved but paid poorly than a job that they hated but paid a lot.”

A large majority of people may not necessarily “love” their jobs, but they have found some measure of enjoyment in them. Finding a reason to enjoy the labor you’re engaged in is key to enjoying your labor! Charles Schwab understood the value of having a deeper purpose for working than simply laboring, as revealed by Bits & Pieces:

When the company founded by Andrew Carnegie was taken over by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1901 it acquired as one of its obligations a contract to pay the top Carnegie executive, Charles M. Schwab, the then unheard of minimum sum of $1,000,000. J. P. Morgan of U.S. Steel was in a quandary about it. The highest salary on record was then $100,000. He met with Schwab, showed him the contract, and hesitatingly asked what could be done about it.

“This,” said Schwab, as he took the contract and tore it up. That contract had paid Schwab $1,300,000 the year before. “I didn’t care what salary they paid me.”

Schwab later told a Forbes magazine interviewer, “I was not animated by money motives. I believed in what I was trying to do and I wanted to see it brought about. I canceled that contract without a moment’s hesitation. Why do I work? I work for just the pleasure I find in work, the satisfaction there is in developing things, in creating. Also, the associations business begets. The person who does not work for the love of work, but only for money, is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.”

The “why” we do anything that we do is important, including why we labor. When we discover a deeper purpose to our toils, we find greater enjoyment in them. The Bible helps us by pointing us to the greatest “why” we can have for the work we do …

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people,” Colossians 3:23.

“Working for the Lord” elevates any job we have to laboring on “holy ground,” a place where we can daily honor and exalt God by how we carry out our jobs. Our workplaces, whatever they may be, are venues for us to love and serve those we work with (whether co-workers or customers), to demonstrate a practice of integrity and biblical ethics before others, and to let the light of Christ shine in our interactions and workplace relationships. All of this can bring glory to God, and as His children, we find great enjoyment in that!

We could spend much more time getting specific about how we can do our jobs as if we were working for the Lord, but let me share a little insight from a single poem from an unknown author:

SEARCHING FOR A VESSEL
The Master was searching for a vessel to use;
On the shelf there were many — which one would He choose?
Take me, cried the gold one, I’m shiny and bright,
I’m of great value and I do things just right.
My beauty and luster will outshine the rest
And for someone like You, Master, gold would be the best!

Unheeding, the Master passed on to the brass,
It was wide mouthed and shallow, and polished like glass.
Here! Here! cried the vessel, I know I will do,
Place me on Your table for all men to view.

Look at me, called the goblet of crystal so clear,
My transparency shows my contents so dear,
Though fragile am I, I will serve You with pride,
And I’m sure I’ll be happy Your house to abide.

The Master came next to a vessel of wood,
Polished and carved, it solidly stood.
You may use me, dear Master, the wooden bowl said,
But I’d rather You used me for fruit, not for bread!

Then the Master looked down and saw a vessel of clay.
Empty and broken it helplessly lay.
No hope had the vessel that the Master might choose,
To cleanse and make whole, to fill and to use.

Ah! This is the vessel I’ve been hoping to find,
I will mend and use it and make it all Mine.

I need not the vessel with pride of itself;
Nor the one who is narrow to sit on the shelf;
Nor the one who is big-mouthed and shallow and loud;
Nor one who displays his contents so proud;
Not the one who thinks he can do all things just right;
But this plain earthy vessel filled with My power and might.

Then gently He lifted the vessel of clay.
Mended and cleansed it and filled it that day.
Spoke to it kindly, “There’s work you must do,
Just pour out to others as I pour into you.”

How can you enjoy your labor, whatever it is? Pour out to others as God pours into you. As a child of God, you’ll find great satisfaction in how doing that brings glory to God and blesses others.

Scotty