Work Realization

Last Friday night after returning home from welcoming in the Sabbath at church Vespers service, best believe I was ready to catch some z’s. That morning I woke up early around 5 like I always do to prepare for work, and then I ended up working an extra two hours because I wasn’t quite finished by 3 pm. My sleep pattern can be a little bit off. I have never shared this before with you all, but sometimes I wake up around 3 am and then at 5 am. Why my sleep pattern is like this I don’t know. Maybe it’s what I’m eating. Maybe I’m not falling asleep early enough. Courtni believes that perhaps God is trying to tell me something.

The following morning, once more I woke up around 3, drifted back to sleep, and then cracked my eyes open again at 5. Remembering what Courtni said, I did something I never do around that hour. I walked down the squeaky steps to the living room, sat in the loveseat with my back against a pillow, and flipped open my Bible, heavy with its pages and print.

What was I going to read from the oldest book in history at that hour? On impulse, I chose Ecclesiastes, written by whom many believe to be a man of great God given wisdom- King Solomon.

For as long as I can remember my mentality has been to work three times as hard as everyone else. I choose to do this because I believe if you have a job you do it to the best of your ability. Second, I like having money in my pocket and accounts. Third, I suspect when one first hears me talk there is that doubt of “I wonder if his speech will be an issue”. You might call me a hard worker. Much to my dismay I can end up doing many tasks that have me feeling drained physically and emotionally during and after a shift. Isn’t it difficult to be happy when your body parts are aching and your shift goes longer than what you were anticipating. A job can become like a leech or tick draining the blood out of you day by day if you’re not careful.

“Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.” – Ecclesiastes 2:17 NKJV

If you find pleasure in the tasks you are doing, good for you. If you have found your dream job and take great joy in doing what you always wanted- congratulations. Everyone should like what they’re getting paid to do right? For as Ecclesiastes 2: 24 NKJV says,

“Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God.”

There is nothing wrong with being successful. Didn’t our parents instill in us that if we don’t work we don’t eat? What Solomon explains prior to verse 24 is that our days are limited upon the Earth, and that it is a waste to strain ourselves overworking, trying to be the best and gain more riches than others. Why, because there will be others after you.

“Then I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I toiled and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun?”- Ecclesiastes 2: 18- 19 NKJV

All our hard work, accomplishments, even riches won’t matter when we have been laid to rest. No doubt you will do memorable things throughout your life. Things that may leave a mark on this world, or at least where you reside. Grand things such as being made Employee of the Year, running a business, winning the Nobel Prize, landing movie/tv roles, inventing, discovering cures for diseases, or being voted into a political position. But surely there will be others who succeed you, who will labor just as much as you did. There are and will be other hard working teachers, artists, writers, actors, soldiers, lawyers, athletes, scientists, engineers, musicians, singers, doctors, politicians,etc.

Work hard because you need to live. Find some joy in your daily works. Don’t overwork because it will leave you with a dark cloud over your head. Remember there will be others who succeed you after you have gone to sleep.