The 'W' Word

“Enjoy all the useless days of this useless life God had given you here on Earth, because it is all you have.”

I often find myself returning to Ecclesiastes when I don’t know which part of the Bible to read. This seems odd because most of it is King Solomon going on and on about how miserable and pointless life is (although Jesus hadn’t arrived yet so we can cut him some slack). Solomon repeats the point over and over again: that life is painful and useless so we should eat, drink and enjoy being alive.

But the book offers some pretty good advise on how to approach life, and in particular how to approach work. I will totally understand now if, having just worked out that the W word I referred to in the title is Work, you choose to go and play candy crush instead of reading the rest of this. Should you choose to read on I promise to try to write something interesting.

Like many people I struggle to balance how much I work with how much I enjoy myself. Not so long ago I was a fairly typical university student, trying to hold off procrastination enough to pass my degree. My main motivator was guilt. If I didn’t do so many hours in a day it meant I was lazy and therefore a bad person, but soon I realised that the guilt was driving me mad, with my tiny brain going round and round in circles because no matter how guilty I felt I never seemed to do enough work. At this point God took pity on me and led me to Ecclesiastes.

The third verse says “what do people really gain from all the hard work they do here on Earth?” and it forced me to question what I was really gaining from trying to study harder. Mostly a headache. I probably didn't work all that much more and in all honesty I didn’t even want to do a degree by my third year, I just wanted to finish and get the certificate regardless of the numbers written on it. I don’t recommend this attitude towards working, it’s a pretty poor one and doesn’t yield great results. My point is, if you’re striving to work hard at something it should be motivated by a desire to do that something rather than the feeling that you’re a bad person if you don’t do it.

Work is valuable and important. All through the Bible we’re told that working hard is better than being lazy. Even Solomon acknowledges this: “if someone is lazy the roof will begin to fall. If he doesn’t fix it, the house will leak.” (Ecc 10:8). God worked 6 days out of 7. But the Bible doesn’t say “God rested on the seventh day because he’s had a really stressful week and just needed an evening off to watch Poldark and forget that he had to go back in on Monday.” It says that God saw everything he had created and it was very good, so when he finished he rested and blessed that day. This sounds like he enjoyed the work and just wanted to sit back and admire it for a bit. Nice one God.

Whilst growing up, the working people I knew never really had anything good to say about their jobs, and in a society where we are educated in order to achieve money and a career, this whole enjoying work thing is something of an alien concept to me. I’m guessing that this is the case for many of us: the W word invokes visions of uncomfortable shoes and badly fitted nylon trousers, glass-fronted conference rooms and black coffee in paper cups. Oh the horror! Maybe I’ve just watched too much of the Apprentice. But please dear friends, let us return to the wise words of Solomon: “I have seen what is best for people here on Earth. They should eat, drink and enjoy their work.”

It then goes on to say that God blesses some people with the ability to enjoy their work and that he keeps them busy with what they love to do. Doesn’t this kinda sound like God wants us to enjoy work? If that’s the case why aren’t we striving to achieve a job we will enjoy? Perhaps we don’t know what that job could be. Maybe such jobs don’t pay well, or aren't considered a valuable vocation.

Maybe it's time to start seriously thinking and praying over what we really should be doing work-wise. It’s really important to remind ourselves that 1) God doesn’t want us to be miserable. And 2) that no matter who you are and how little you think you have to offer God has a plan for you.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Fin.

This post is dedicated to all those still studying for exams, and for anyone who has just fallen out of the education system and is wondering what exactly they are going to do with their lives.