I won’t blame those freshmen guys for yawning all the way through my class. It was 2 in the afternoon, and they had started the day with a before-school basketball practice. It was a grueling first week in their new schedule, to say nothing of the fact that it was the end of the quarter and they had a mountain of homework every night.
“Wouldn’t it be awesome,” said one of the guys on his way out the door, “if every day was the weekend?”
At first I started to laugh and agree, but then I took a second to think about it. “No. It would be awful, because I really like to work.”
I did not get an amen to that.
Tucked into the Ten Commandments is a simple instruction:
“Six days you shall labor and do all your work” (Ex. 20:9).
Six days we’re supposed to labor, and I like it. The challenge is good for my brain. The interactions with people are good for my soul. It’s hard. I get tired. But I’m thankful to have a job at school and jobs to do at home.
In the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink talks about the motivation to work. He makes this statement:
Words matter.
It matters how we talk about the work we do every day.
He goes on to quote Gary Hamel, who says that business leaders “must find ways to infuse mundane business activities with deeper, soul-stirring ideals, such as honor, truth, love, justice and beauty.”
That is excellent advice and sounds very God-honoring to me. We should speak highly of our work, since the Lord has designed it to fill our days. We can infuse even the most mundane tasks with “soul-stirring ideals.”
Bring some touches of loveliness.
Rise to the opportunity to do every task honorably.
Love the people we’re serving.
So yes, I welcome the weekend rest, but work is good. Will you join me in looking back over the week and thanking God for the labor he has entrusted to us?
