We celebrated Labor Day this month and I noticed my junk mail is full of retirement information, even burial insurance! My friends talk about what they will do with the extra time when they stop working. For women, the work is altered, but never stops. While on the mission field, we used to say, “we’ll just burn out, never retire”. With the current trend of so many… to just take the government check and lay personal responsibility to one side, retirement comes early!
“Unless a man undertakes more than he possibly can do,
he will never do all he could or can do.”
Henry Drummond
My Dad lived 94 years and never missed a day of work or really retired. “To be put out to pasture” was not an option. There was no retreat when it came to the designed purpose of duty. It is duty that binds us to our reliability and trustworthiness. The task, whatever it is, is the obligation that unites us to a commission or assignment. It’s a compulsion, if you are blessed with work that you enjoy. There is an indebtedness to your labor that comes with the promise of hearing that it has been a “job well done”.
At 13, I worked in my Dad’s service department every day all summer. Every summer, thereafter, I was assigned a different position in his large company and I learned a new skill. By the time I left for college, my work experience was extensive. A strong work ethic was instilled and today it continues to serve me well. I have a deep gratitude for my Dad and his personal discipleship in this area of my life and many others.
I married a driven, type A work-alcoholic. His commitment to God, his family and those in spiritual and physical need, keep him effectively functioning, continually. There is no toiling for him…he gets up each morning, salutes His Master and enthusiastically charges into the day ahead of him!
With so much controversy regarding the need and purpose of work, I thought it might be profitable for us to look into the face of God and see what HE says about labor. Yahoo just reported that 13% of adult men do not work! There have been books written about the evil of work. In our drug drenched culture, human nature is drawn toward investigating ways of dodging work and still maintaining a “no consequence” life-style. We, women, have been given a warning regarding our work…
“Rise up you women, who are at ease and hear my voice;
Give ear to my word, you complacent daughters.” Isa. 32:9
Work is exemplified for us in the Proverbs woman as she “sets about her work vigorously with eager hands” (Pro. 31: 13,17) There are many categories of work mentioned in scripture: Wicked work (I Jn. 1: 11); Artistic work (Ex. 31: 4); Designer work (Ex. 39: 22,27); Regular work (Lev. 23: 25); Floral work (II Chron. 4:21) etc. Then, there is the one who is “Slack at work…he(she) is brother(sister) to one who destroys.” (Pro. 18: 9) Or the admonition to the one who “does not provide for his family..” (I Tim. 5: 8) And although this list is not conclusive, “The rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat”! (II Thess. 3: 10)
In the first book of the Bible we have a working God! (Gen. 1:31) Adam and Eve were given work and cared for the garden of Eden. Every bible character was assigned a job and we learn from each of them. A time frame for work is noted, “Then people go out to their work, to their labor until evening.” (Psalm 104: 23) Work comes with a promise: “All hard work brings a profit…” (Pro. 14: 23) The expected days to work is mentioned, “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day…”.(Ex. 23: 12)
“When man loses the sacred significance of work and of himself,
as worker, he soon loses the sacred meaning of time and of life.”
Carl F. H. Henry
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is mentoring and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
