Goodness #2—Good Laboring

Here is what is good and fitting: to eat, to drink and to enjoy yourself in all your labor in which you toil under the sun during the few years of your life which God has given you; for this is your portion. Ecclesiastes 5:18

Some days when frustration is at its height, when our work load is beyond control, when government regulations threaten to strangle us, when nothing we do seems to further our agenda, we wonder about the value of our work: What good is this? These are the times when we must remember that work, itself, is good. The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that in God’s economy ‘portion’ is better than ‘profit,’ a share is better than an advantage. For work to be enjoyed, we do not have to see it as a means to some other end. Working is an end. We can do our work simply for the pleasure of doing it. It does not have to get us any ‘where’ or provide us with any ‘thing.’ We enjoy music for music’s sake; we enjoy art for art’s sake; let us enjoy our work for the work’s sake. This is the gift of God, so we will not often worry about the years of life, because God keeps us occupied with the gladness of our heart.

Father, thank you for a way to find joy in my work, even when the circumstances in which I work are not joyful, and the results of my work are not what I expect. Please bring this to mind the next time I encounter an opportunity to resent what you have given me to do. Amen.