Tip of My Iceberg

photo courtesy of Alex Koliarskye on Unsplash

Labor Day, the official end of summer, is the pause before the tsunami of a general increased work load. A day to reflect on the chance to contribute to family and society with whatever job we have,. Growing up, my dad emphasized that it wasn’t so much what job we had but how well we did it.

September 5, 1882 was the first Labor Day that celebrated “the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations.” An industrial economy was emerging as the greater place for workers, where manufacturing hired more workers than farms needed. It was not uncommon to see Americans working 12-hour days, seven days a week just to make ends meet. Labor unions had been formed for several decades, and it was important for these people to band together to insist on and pursue safer situations for all who worked.

That first Labor Day, celebrated in New York City, saw 10,000 workers take unpaid time off to march from City Hall to Union Square to honor the dignity of the working individual and their contribution to society at large.

People today aren’t as prone to find dignity in the work place; if we don’t feel engaged or significant in our jobs, it’s easy to move from position to position to find something that pleases them. The Judeo-Christian work ethic has been part of America’s foundation since the 1940s and was put forward by author George Orwell and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. One of the things it emphasized was the value of personal industry and responsibility. It outlined a life focus that valued everyone and encouraged everyone to live in harmony, choosing to work together for the common good.

Work was a concept God incorporated into His creation. It wasn’t punishment or wearing but a means to constructively use our time for the good of all. He challenges us to steward the skill sets we have to make the best of what He’s given us.

Jesus told a parable about what it meant to work out of who we are. A rich man who had many working for him called three of his workers to him and gave them each a large amount of money called talents. Each talent was worth 6,000 days wages. He gave one man five talents, one two, and one a single talent. He then left on a long trip.

The first two men had a relationship with this man and recognized he wasn’t giving them money to refurbish their homes. They both went out and invested what they’d been given. The third man who was wary of his boss, was afraid to mess up, so rather than invest it, he buried it in the ground.

When the boss came back, he called his men to find out how they’d used their money. When the first two came back with a great return on what they’d been given, the boss didn’t comment on the amount but on their faithfulness to steward well what they’d been given.

The third man was nervous. He tried to cover his bases by saying he knew his boss to be a hard man. So rather than risk losing anything, he handed the man back what he’d been given. The boss called him wicked and lazy and took the talent away from him. This man left his employ.

What Jesus was trying to tell them was that each of us has the chance to become all He sees us becoming if we’ll use what we’ve been given for His glory. We’re not all given the same opportunities; that’s life. But what we do with what we’ve been given is what defines our character.

We’re not all crazy about our jobs, but the chance to work well at what we can do is important, not just to us but to our families and communities. How well we work at the job we have is more important than the specifics of the job.

How we work defines the quality of person we are.

That’s worth celebrating.