The Lord has called Bezalel... to work. Exodus 35:30-32.

Why work? A western businessman asked a sleeping African, 'Why aren't you working?' The African: 'I enjoy doing nothing: why should I work?' The westerner replied, 'To make money'. 'And, sir, what should I do with the money?' 'Oh, you

can buy a house, and a car and a boat and other things.' 'And,' the African asked, 'What do you do when you've got all that?' 'Oh...' said the westerner, 'I'd sit around and do nothing!'

Work, said a cynic, is whatever you're doing when you'd rather be doing something else. Work, for a Christian, is essentially service to God. It's a form of worship. We are created in the image of a working God. God works for creative, the devil for destructive, purposes.

The scriptures are full of praise for the work of human hands, hearts, and minds. Even God makes, forms, builds, and plants (Genesis 2:4,7,8,19,23). Work skills are gifts from God. Jesus was immersed in the life and problems of working people. The apostles sometimes returned to the jobs they left to follow Jesus. His parables refer to sowers, vineyard labourers, harvesters, house building, tending pigs, and women sweeping their home.

Lord, God, Creator, thank you for my ordained calling. May I put my whole heart into it, for your glory. Amen......

OUR WORK PLEASES GOD.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground... you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Genesis 3:19.

We were created to find fulfilment in our working. The Fall spoiled all that and put a negative connotation on the word 'work'. Paul criticized idleness and exhorted Christians to work (2 Thessalonians 3:6). For Marx, 'the shortening of the workday' and never good work itself is portrayed as the entrance to the 'realm of freedom'. Simone Weil writes about the holiness of the poor - the peasant, the labourer, the worker - who at the end of the day drops on the bed from exhaustion. There's an integrity about doing one's daily work to the best of one's abilities and energies. Work is not the antithesis of human fulfilment. We are not creatures destined for freedom who are now trapped in an alienated realm of necessity. We are called to manifest the image of God, to be free precisely in and through our work.

All human activities are equally God-given. None can claim religious priority over another. Tyndale declared that 'to wash dishes and to preach is all one, as touching the deed, to please God.' We are not apprentice angels, better suited to and waiting for an existence on another spiritual plane. Paul made no distinction between physical and spiritual work and used the same terms to refer to both the manual labour by which he earned a living and also his apostolic service.

May the blessing of God the creator, Jesus the carpenter, and the Spirit our helper, be on you and your work, now and always. Amen......

TOIL UNSEVER'D FROM TRANQUILITY (Matthew Arnold)

Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for masters... you serve the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23,24.

Part of our calling is to rest. God rested after creating the universe. The Sabbath commandment carries as much weight as those not to kill or steal. We do more and better work in six days than in seven. Resting is more than recuperation. Rest and work may involve similar activities - done in a different spirit. Resting is tied to faith - so some avoid rest. Lack of rest is tied to unbelief (eg. Psalm 95:8-11; Hebrews 3:7 - 4:10). Note William Lamb's phrase about 'sabbathless Satan'.

A distortion of the 'Protestant work ethic' encourages us to define who we are by what we do. 'I work, therefore I am.' Ask a workaholic who they apart from what they do: they find that very hard.

The welfare state mentality says: 'I am, therefore I am owed food, health, clothing, shelter and happiness.' It's the clash of the ethic of achievement versus the ethic of entitlement. Both are dehumanizing and unbiblical. Paul said 'If anyone doesn't work he shouldn't eat'. But he took up collections on behalf of the poor. In Romans 12:11 we read 'Work hard and don't be lazy' but just two verses later, 'Share your belongings with your needy fellow-Christians.'

So Lord Christ, I will plan, use my energies, and serve you as if I was going to live on earth for ever; and I will live day by day as if I were going to meet you tomorrow. Amen......

WORK - ONE OF OUR GREATEST ASSETS.

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. John 9:4.

In my files I have many quotes about work, from desk calendars and other sources. Here's a pot pourri:

# Health and work are our greatest assets, and provide for contentment and happiness. (Diary of a Welsh Swagman 1869-1894)

# We are living in a society where 'average' is enough. Workers punch in at nine o'clock and begin their countdown to five. For managers and employees alike, the job is seen as an interruption between weekends. (Denis Waitley)

# When God wanted sponges and oysters, he made them, and put one on a rock, and the other in the mud. When he made humans, he did not make them to be sponges or oysters; he made them with feet and hands, and head and heart, and vital blood, and a place to use them, and said 'Go, work!' (Frank S Mead)

One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee,
One lesson which in every wind is blown,
One lesson of two duties kept at one
Though the loud world proclaim their enmity -
Of toil unsever'd from tranquility! (Matthew Arnold).....

WORK AND REST.

Anyone unwilling to work should not eat. 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

Here is more wit and wisdom about work:

# The ant is knowing and wise but doesn't know enough to take a vacation. (Clarence Day)

# It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure why take a risk! (Ronald Reagan)

# There is no such thing as a born winner. Success is not in the stars. It's in persistent, hard, daily effort. Success takes preparation, self-discipline, hard work, courage, perseverance, and faith. Remember the third servant in our Lord's parable: he was condemned not because he used his talent for evil or because he tried and failed, but because he didn't do anything with it at all. (Denis Waitley)

# Through the week we go down into the valleys of care and shadow. Our sabbaths should be hills of light and joy in God's presence; and so, as time rolls by we should go on from mountain top to mountain top, till at last we catch the glory of the gate, and enter in to go no more out forever. (Henry Ward Beecher)

Lord, cure me of laziness, an inordinate dislike of work, and workaholism, an inordinate love of work. Rather, help me to work and play and rest, all for your glory. I'd like to live for you, not for either work or leisure. May I integrate labour and relaxation, work and prayer, activity and contemplation, and so become more like the creating and redeeming and providential God I worship. Amen......

WHEN DRUDGERY BECOMES DIVINE.

We toil and struggle, because we have our hope set on the living God. 1 Timothy 4:10.

'Thou O God dost sell us all good things at the price of labour,' prayed Leonardo da Vinci.

# Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need. (Voltaire)

# Work is not the curse, but drudgery is. (Henry Ward Beecher)

# Labour without joy is base. Labour without sorrow is base. Sorrow without labour is base. Joy without labour is base. (John Ruskin)

# No race can prosper until it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. (Booker T. Washington)

I found this wisdom in my files: When we rest we acknowledge that all our striving will, of itself, do nothing. It means letting the world pass us by for a time. Genuine rest requires acknowledgment that God, and our brothers and sisters, can survive without us... a recognition of our own insufficiency and a handing over of responsibility. It is a real surrender to the ways of God. It is a moment of celebration when we acknowledge that blessing comes only from the hand of God. This is why rest requires faith. It is also why salvation can be pictured as rest. When we rest we accept God's grace: we do not seek to earn, we receive; we do not justify, we are justified.

Teach me, my God and King, to see you in all things, and do my work as for you. Thank you that drudgery can become divine: whoever sweeps a room does a fine thing, when done for your glory. Amen......