November 18, 2007 "Daily Grind"

(2 Th 3:6 NRSV) Now we command you, beloved, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.

(2 Th 3:7 NRSV) For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us; we were not idle when we were with you,

(2 Th 3:8 NRSV) and we did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it; but with toil and labor we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you.

(2 Th 3:9 NRSV) This was not because we do not have that right, but in order to give you an example to imitate.

(2 Th 3:10 NRSV) For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.

(2 Th 3:11 NRSV) For we hear that some of you are living in idleness, mere busybodies, not doing any work.

(2 Th 3:12 NRSV) Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

(2 Th 3:13 NRSV) Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.

Susie's husband had been slipping in and out of a coma for several months. Things looked grim, but she was by his bedside every single day. One day as he slipped back into consciousness, he motioned for her to come close to him. She pulled the chair close to the bed and leaned her ear close to be able to hear him.

"You know" he whispered, his eyes filling with tears, "you have been with me through all the bad times. When I got fired, you stuck right beside me. When my business went under, there you were. When we lost the house, you were there. When I got shot, you stuck with me. When my health started failing, you were still by my side. "And you know what?"

"What, dear?" she asked gently, smiling to herself.

"I think you're bad luck."

Now, I don’t believe in luck, but this Joke was just too good to pass up! I believe that everything happens for a reason, a reason totally unassociated with luck. Some of us might feel like we have nothing but bad luck, especially when it comes to career choice and work environment. As a matter of a fact, one survey found that the average number of jobs an American worker has held by age 40 is 8 (Charis Conn (Ed.), What Counts: The Complete Harper's Index.)

Bad luck is not behind the dissatisfaction. One researcher estimates that 50 to 80% of Americans are in a job that does not match their abilities. Perhaps that is the reason that the average worker will have a complete career change not just once but 2 or even 3 times before they retire (Cynthia Spence in Homemade, May, 1989.)

I am sure that you have seen the bumper-sticker "I owe, I owe, so off to work I go." For a large amount of folks, this is the best reason they can muster for going to the job each day. My counsel to those who have not yet entered the workforce or are young enough or financially able to make a change: do what you love doing, regardless of the pay. I will tell you that no amount of money is worth an unfulfilling job.

What if we don’t have any other skills that would enable a career change? What if we can’t afford to take a cut in pay to find a fulfilling job? What do we do if we are stuck?

Paul gives us the key to change from the daily grind to glory. This applies to all of us – regardless of our job satisfaction – regardless of whether or not we work outside the home: "Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God” (First Corinthians 10:31).

Well-known preacher Harry Ironside shared the following story:

When I was a boy, I felt it was both a duty and a privilege to help my widowed mother make ends meet by finding employment in vacation time, on Saturdays and other times when I did not have to be in school. For quite a while I worked for a Scottish shoemaker, or "cobbler," as he preferred to be called, an Orkney man, named Dan Mackay. He was a forthright Christian and his little shop was a real testimony for Christ in the neighborhood. The walls were literally covered with Bible texts and pictures, generally taken from old-fashioned Scripture Sheet Almanacs, so that look where one would, he found the Word of God staring him in the face. There were John 3:16 and John 5:24, Romans 10:9, and many more.

On the little counter in front of the bench on which the owner of the shop sat, was a Bible, generally open, and a pile of gospel tracts. No package went out of that shop without a printed message wrapped inside. And whenever opportunity offered, the customers were spoken to kindly and tactfully about the importance of being born again and the blessedness of knowing that the soul is saved through faith in Christ. Many came back to ask for more literature or to inquire more particularly as to how they might find peace with God, with the blessed results that men and women were saved, frequently right in the shoe shop.

It was my chief responsibility to pound leather for shoe soles. A piece of cowhide would be cut to suite, then soaked in water. I had a flat piece of iron over my knees and, with a flat-headed hammer, I pounded these soles until they were hard and dry. It seemed an endless operation to me, and I wearied of it many times.
What made my task worse was the fact that, a block away, there was another shop that I passed going and coming to or from my home, and in it sat a jolly, godless cobbler who gathered the boys of the neighborhood about him and regaled them with lewd tales that made him dreaded by respectable parents as a menace to the community. Yet, somehow, he seemed to thrive and that perhaps to a greater extent than my employer, Mackay. As I looked in his window, I often noticed that he never pounded the soles at all, but took them from the water, nailed them on, damp as they were, and with the water splashing from them as he drove each nail in.

One day I ventured inside, something I had been warned never to do. Timidly, I said, "I notice you put the soles on while still wet. Are they just as good as if they were pounded?" He gave me a wicked leer as he answered, "They come back all the quicker this way, my boy!"

"Feeling I had learned something, I related the instance to my boss and suggested that I was perhaps wasting time in drying out the leather so carefully. Mr. Mackay stopped his work and opened his Bible to the passage that reads, "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of god."

"Harry," he said, "I do not cobble shoes just for the four bits and six bits (50c or 75c) that I get from my customers. I am doing this for the glory of God. I expect to see every shoe I have ever repaired in a big pile at the judgment seat of Christ, and I do not want the Lord to say to me in that day, 'Dan, this was a poor job. You did not do your best here.' I want Him to be able to say, 'Well done, good and faithful servant.'"

Then he went on to explain that just as some men are called to preach, so he was called to fix shoes, and that only as he did this well would his testimony count for God. It was a lesson I have never been able to forget. Often when I have been tempted to carelessness, and to slipshod effort, I have thought of dear, devoted Dan Mackay, and it has stirred me up to seek to do all as for Him who died to redeem me. (H. A. Ironside, Illustrations of Bible Truth, Moody Press, 1945, pp. 37-39.)

You work not for your boss, for your company, or for the profit margin; you work for Christ! This speaks not only to work environment; it speaks also to idleness.

What is that famous saying about idleness? Isn’t it “Idle hands are the devil’s workshop”? Why is that? Because when we intentionally pass up involvement, we make ourselves available for the problems that idleness brings: sloth, gossip, and waste of the gift called life. We were put on earth for a monumental reason: to grow into Christ-likeness and to help others do the same. Idleness is the greatest misuse of that intended purpose.

Last week I preached on heaven. Planet earth is the training ground for heaven. If we can’t be happy with the notion of Christian growth here – growth which entails worship, bible study and service - how will we ever be happy with heaven? Church is the number one avenue for putting your abilities and gifts to work. To do anything less is to miss out on God’s intention for your life. Paul was so adamant about it that he said that if a person doesn’t work, he or she should not be fed! Someone once said, “God gives the birds their food, but He doesn't throw it into their nests.” Work is essential to our livelihood both physically and mentally.

Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of people drank from its flow.

Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, "This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor." They did; they laid modern iron pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble. The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy idleness disintegrated. (Resource, Sept./ Oct., 1992, p. 4.)

Not working when you can (please understand that there are valid reasons some can not work, due to physical or mental challenges) gives us too much time on our hands, which leads to poor use of time.

There used to be a sign in Sistersville, our last appointment, on the way out of town that read “Sistersville: Small but Busy.” Things have changed over the years; it is not a town that is busy as it used to be. Someone one day added to the sign: “Sistersville: Small but Busybodies!” Of course, the sign was removed. I think that someone who was hurt added to the sign. If you are from a small town or still live in one, you know how everyone knows or thinks they know everyone else’s business. This person was probably hurt by gossip, which is an outgrowth of having nothing better to do.

Work is essential to not only our physical and mental health, it is essential to our spiritual health. And, it makes a difference in the spiritual walks of others.

Paul wanted Christians to show the beauty of their faith in Christ by how they work. He even showed them in Thessalonica. He worked in their midst as a tent-maker, showing them the beauty of his faith as he worked for Christ.

The first governor-general of Australia was a man by the name of Lord Hopetoun. One of his most cherished possessions was a 300 year old ledger he had inherited from John Hope, one of his ancestors. Hope had owned a business in Edinburgh, where he first used this old ledger. When Lord Hopetoun received it, he noticed that it had inscribed on its front page this prayer, "O Lord, keep me and this book honest!" (Source Unknown.)

How common is employee dishonesty? According to one recent survey: Falsifying time sheets was admitted by 5.8% of workers. Stealing merchandise was admitted by 6.6%. Among people working in retail stores, 57% said they abused their employee-discount privileges. (Dr. John Clark, in Homemade, Nov, 1985.)

Time theft--deliberate waste and abuse of company time--costs the U.S. economy over $120 billion a year (Creative Management, in Homemade, May, 1985.)

In one survey of workers across the USA, nearly 85% said that they could work harder on the job. More than half claimed they could double their effectiveness "if (they) wanted to." (Managing the Equity Factor, R Huseman, J Hatfield, 1989.)

People are watching us to see if we go along with the status quo! Christians must not be status quo people. Jesus wasn’t, nor should we. We must work hard at being a cut above. Paul said, “…do not be weary in doing what is right.” Right might not always be the most popular or the most profit; but as we work for Christ, our actions have eternal consequences, whether we sweep the floors or compose symphonies!

So, like Harry, expect to see all that you have done piled before Him. And, as He surveys that scene, may we hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant; enter into your Father’s eternal rest!” Amen.