Work

This post was inspiried both by this message Pastor Ron preached at church a couple weeks ago and by this post by Ross Middleton.

I realize that there are folks out there, particularly my generation and younger, that simply want everything handed to them without working for it. That, however, has never been my problem. My parents instilled a good work ethic in me, and although I struggle with periodic bouts of laziness, I genearlly understand the importance of work. My problem with work is not philsophical, it’s practical, and it’s for this reason:

Genearlly speaking, I don’t love my job.

Not an earth-shattering statement, and one that I think a lot of people tend to agree with. I go to work every day to spend 8 hours in a 6×6 cubicle staring at a computer screen. People call me when they have problems, and I fix their problems (usually). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate my job. I don’t hate it, but I sure don’t love it either. Sometimes it’s boring, but sometimes it’s interesting and challenging. But never is it fulfilling.

There are other things in my life that are fulfilling, namely helping lead the worship team at church, teaching, being a worship leader at IHOP. None of those things pay well, if at all, which has led to my view of work as a necessary evil. It’s what you I to earn money so that you can do what you love in the evenings and weekends.

I have worked for 2 companies and a temp agency since graduating college, and have held several different positions at each. Some of them were worse than others, and what I’m doing currently is actually better than any of the previous ones. I have ranged from hating my job so much that I could barely get out of bed in the morning to generally tolerating and occasionally enjoying it.

What I’ve learned in all this is that how I feel about what I do doesn’t really matter that much. Whether I’m loving my job or hating my job or am somewhere in the middle isn’t relevant. What is relevant to God is whether not I am excellent at whatever it is I’m doing. Am I working towards having a Godly mindset towards work, or am I constantly complaining about how much I hate my job? And if I stopped complaining for a few minutes, would I find the time to be thankful for both the ability and the opportunity to work?

Yeah, I have a long way to go.

I don’t think God wants any of us to spend the rest of our lives working in dead end jobs that we hate. I do think, though, that if you’re in a season like mine, we would probably be wise to ask God what he is teaching us in this season because the chances are pretty good that we’ll need that lesson/skill/character trait/etc. sooner or later.

Just some random thoughts…