Minute Meditations

We recently read a most interesting article entitled ”How To Be Happy Though Working.” It is quite apparent to most of us that in order to live we must work. This is in harmony with the teaching of Paul, who said, ”For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

The thing that is so easily forgotten is the fact that working is merely a means to an end and not the end itself. We work because we need to eat. Most firms today have devised sly ways of wringing the last full ounce of time and energy from their employees. The promise of promotion, the threat of dismissal, and the challenge of competition are all employed in an effort to secure the full devotion of each worker. Because of this we need to always keep in mind our true values and place things in their proper place. Christ said that we cannot serve God and mammon. He was right, and yet we have to work for a living and therein lies the problem. Just how ambitious should the child of God be in providing for the necessities of life. The article we read while not concerned with the spiritual viewpoint, nevertheless seemed to have the answer to this perplexing problem. It said, ”Many a man likes his job, not because it challenges him or promises him success – very few jobs actually do – but simply because it provides him a livelihood and doesn’t get too much in his way. He looks for fulfillment in other places and is pleased that his job leaves him time and energy to do so.”

This seems to be an intelligent approach to the problem. If our jobs require all of our time and energy, what do we have left to give to the Lord? If our occupations demand so much of our attention that we relegate God to a secondary position, where is our treasure? Jesus told us that where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. It’s no use talking about the pearl of great price and how much the truth means to us if our thoughts and actions are inconsistent with what we say. Paul told us to ”provide things honest in the sight of all men.” We should be scrupulously honest in giving a full day’s work for a day’s pay. To do less than this is not right but to do more than this is an indication that we are endeavoring to lay .up our treasure where it can be exposed to the corruption of moths and rust and where thieves break through and steal. All too often a man wakes up to the fact that he has become a tremendous success financially, but has failed to fulfill his duty to his God, his wife and his children. He has not only destroyed his health in achieving success but he discovers that he has lost the things he thought he was working hard to secure. He has so long neglected his God and his family that he find himself all alone with nothing but his ulcer and his bank account.

If only we would heed the wise advice of Paul when he admonished us that ”having food and raiment let us be therewith content.” If we will only seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, God will give us those things that we have need of. We have to work, yes, but let’s not lose our perspective. Let us be happy, though working, in the realization that we are providing things honest in the sight of all men but our ”delight is in the law of the Lord: and in His law do we meditate day and night.”