Delight In My Work

MY HEART TOOK DELIGHT IN ALL MY WORK AND THIS WAS THE REWARD FOR ALL MY LABOR. Eccl 2.10.

Long before electricity and light, everyone got home before dark, having finished their day’s work! While there were people in the service industry who worked on shifts, only doctors ‘worked round the clock’ treating the sick. Now that we have 24-hour light, many people work day and night! Friends of mine in secular jobs work till late at night and come home only after their wives and children are in bed! Early in the morning they leave home for work before the family is up! It is quite common that the mothers in the family too do the same. It has become the ‘angel of destruction’ of the twenty-first century’s family and society! And who are the losers in the game – the children of the future, yours and mine!

Of course, you who have put in a life-time of hard work could boast of much wealth, position and achievements! There are many who take pride in their achievements, much like King Solomon in today’s Bible text. “My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor”.

Solomon immensely enjoyed the fruit of his labour as we see in the accounts of the Bible. Unfortunately, most people today have ‘no time” to do that. They are a “no time for anything generation”. They have no family life, physical exercise or any enjoyment because they work late into the night. Work keeps them occupied everyday of the week and even on weekends. Many get home only after midnight. Working all night is not unusual. They can take no holiday for rest and recreation for themselves or with the family. A friend of mine is unable to accompany his wife and little child to the weekly Home Fellowship because he is loaded with work and more work. ‘Deadlines’ are taking the toll on his vital spiritual life too!

I have read stories of many who lived such lives of ‘all work and no play’. You and I may know others in the same situation. Perhaps you are one of them! Though in the nursery rhyme ‘Jack only became dull due to all work and no play’, today many such people are ‘dropping dead’ or falling sick and are bed-ridden! The reason - no amount of counsel by the family, friends or physicians could make them change their lifestyle.

Dear friend, only when people face these dire consequences of their pointless hard-working life do they begin to realise that what Solomon said is true! “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (v 11). For many, it will be too late even to think! For others too, it will be too late for ‘they cannot regain their lost past!’ But for those who have still time, listen to the somber words of King Solomon.

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, You have put me here on earth to live, labour and be blessed. Teach me how to do my work wisely and to take care of my family, my body and above all my spirit. Amen.