Purpose for hard work

When people ask me, “What do you do?” I know that they have assumed I have a job outside the home and want to know where I work. At first, the assumption annoyed me and I felt that I had to justify going against the grain by staying home and raising my children.

After the brood left the nest, I became less defensive. When the census taker asked, “Do you work?” I replied, “You bet I do,” and she apologized. I’ve also told a few people that I am a “kept woman” which often gets a chuckle, but more often a raised eyebrow. Sometimes the response is envy.

I’ve heard the line about making my contribution to society and am happy to say that I’ve three children who are making a contribution to the working world that I could never have made had I went to work and left them with a sitter. If my value to society were weighed by their reputation for the work they do, or the effort they give, or the money they make, then I could point to them and say, “This is what I do.” In that sense, staying home was a good plan.

Yet part of today’s devotional verse convicts me. The verse says, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need” (Ephesians 4:28).

I’ve never stolen anything, so it is not that. I’m convicted by the working hard part. While people think that I do a lot of things, and my husband says that I work hard, I know that deep in my own heart there is a tendency to be lazy. I exercise every day but would rather not. My volunteer work often puts dread in my heart. Many times I just want to veg in front of the television, or read a book, or play computer games, or just do nothing.

While technically not stealing, this desire to abuse the time God gave me is a bit like robbery. He asks me to work hard and I don’t want to. Actually, the word in the verse refers to hard, manual work and I avoid it. Work makes my muscles sore and as I get older, hard work is less and less appealing.

The convicting part is deepened by the reason God wants this hard work. He wants me to work hard so that I will have enough to give to those in need. Aside from the kept woman joke, I’ve made a little money writing and gladly given good portions of it, but I know if I were less lazy, I could do far more for others than I’ve done.

At my age, I get funds from the federal coffers as a pension. It is easy for me to spend that money on myself, even though (again as a kept woman), I don’t need the extra money. God is generous to me, but not so I can buy more stuff that I do not need.

That is the other convicting part. A line from today’s reading says, “The worldly approach to wealth is to hoard what we acquire.” I have too much stuff. It seems the more we haul off to the Goodwill store, the more there is. The New Testament principle is to work hard at “good work” that is “useful” — not “fulfilling” nor for my own needs and purposes, but for the needs of others.

I walked by a garage sale yesterday and lingered for a moment. Then I asked the seller if he had a gadget or something that would keep people from buying more stuff, because that is what I really need. He laughed, but I think my question made him as uncomfortable as the thought of it made me.

I’m at retirement age, and probably couldn’t get a job if I tried, but by thinning out the excess stuff, and by being frugal regarding what I buy for me, I know that the money I do have could be invested far more effectively than letting it pile up interest in the bank.