Brenda, Brenda, we disagree, alas. I want to say so much to win you over to my side but I’ll save it for the article that I’m hoping to squeeze out of our divergence of opinion. Yes, it is wonderful to have a place to express oneself. I can’t wait until I’m able to stop by your blog on a regular.

Dboys–I can always count on you to be the same. I don’t know that your humor translates so well on the page, though. Nonetheless, I smile.

This is why I am a book and blog writer and not an advertising copywriter anymore. I just didn’t want to sing the praises of baby wipes and air fresheners even one more time! : ) (Of course, the path wasn’t a straight one… I went through a teaching stint in between and circled back to writing later.)

“Futility and frustration in work is ordained by God…we ought not to be surprised and dismayed by difficulty in work, and the fact that so few people are happy in theirs.”

Brenda, you’ve triggered a fault line of mine and I’m having a bit of an earthquake of a response to what you’ve commented. So please don’t take offense. Yes, God is our sustenance in day to day living, even in our mundane work (which, by the way, parallels a chapter I just finished in L.L.’s new book, Stone Crossings–definitely recommend—where she says our call may not be to grandiosity but to faithfulness in the day to day things), BUT I do not think that futility in work is ordained by God.

Initially in the Garden work was not onerous to the man. So if grueling work was part of the curse, and now we are free from the curse, then shouldn’t we be free from grueling work as well? Solomon repeats three times in Ecclesiastes something like, ‘there is nothing better for man under the sun than for him to find satisfaction in his work’. Work matters. Work should not deplete and dismay, particularly when we give the best of our time and talent to these jobs. Especially not for those of us in Christ. I would say not only should we be surprised and dismayed and alarmed and troubled by dissatisfaction at work, but when we feel this way, we are honor bound, our human dignity demands, that we investigate whether or not there is congruence between our selves/lives and our jobs, and to make any and all adjustments that may be required if there is not, no matter the cost. Like my friend who is a very successful salesman. When he came to Christ he could no longer find satisfaction in the paycheck attached to selling nicotine products. At great cost to himself and his family, he left his job. Ironically, he is now a very successful salesman of life saving emergency equipment that is required to be installed in commercial properties.

We are not robots, just doing what we are programmed to do. God has endowed man with soul and spirit, both of which need to be made alive and fed. We are not excused from investigating the cry inside of us that demands loudly, or requests in a whisper, more. We ought not be surprised by work misery…you say? Yet, we are, so many of us. Because we, in our humanity, dare to hope for, to imagine, to expect better. We cannot, and should not, help doing so. You might say that the satisfaction that we seek is found in Chirst, not the job. I would say, then, that there should be no marriage, or childbirth, or touches and hugs, or diets and gyms, or home ownership, or ownership of any kind. Neither should there be any exercise of authority, why should anyone aspire to dominion in any way? Yes, Christ is our all, but the “our” is a human “our”, and as much as we humans have need of love, affection, dominion and ownership, despite our relationships with Christ, we also have a need for meaningful work.

Yes…No…?

A.

Yes, our work is …well, what it is (being an insurance defense attorney myself). I understand the frustration and the smallness of it all, sitting in courtrooms every day among the masses, fighting and fighting and fighting to save insurance companies with billions in assets a few thousand dollars. What a way to live.

However, I realized some time ago that misery in our work is part of the plan of God. It is part of the world system created by Him to hold us to Him and to draw us to Himself. In Genesis we read that after The Fall God tells Adam: “Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;… By the sweat of your face you will eat bread…” Genesis 3: 17a – 19. Futility and frustration in work is ordained by God. But still, being in Christ is a reprieve from the futility because He helps us through our days. Living in the Holy Spirit means that this life and this work is not all there is. Praise God!!!

However, we ought not to be surprised and dismayed by difficulty in work, and the fact that so few people are happy in theirs. This should
be comforting to know.

Thanks again for the referal to http://www.accountingweb.com ! =)

“…we ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatest of work, but the love with which it is performed.”

Still, spring eventually overtakes winter, and the seasons do change in time.