Today’s Scripture Reading (September
28, 2016): Ecclesiastes 3
It is a
perversion of the Dwarfs’ Marching Song in the 1937 movie version of Snow
White. Of course, we know that the dwarves sang “Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, It’s off
to work we go. We’ll keep on singing all day long Heigh-ho.” Our perversion of the song goes more like this “I owe; I owe, so off to work I go.” It ignites
the fire inside of us. But ultimately we struggle with the question of why we
work. The obvious answer is that we work to make money so that we can live (I
owe, I owe.) So the average person seems to arrange their lives this way – we work
so that we can play. But the problem is that we work countless more hours than
we play. We spend our lives chasing the next deadline so that we can pay the
next bill. And the cycle simply never ends.
Solomon has already noted in Ecclesiastes that he is angry because all of
the products of his labor will, in the end, be passed on to someone else ( I hated all the things I had toiled for under the
sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me – Ecclesiastes 2:18.) Here he seems to
answer his own struggle. Since everything
that I own will one day be turned over to someone else, enjoy the process of
work as well as the end goal. I get that. I have some things that I have a hard time parting
with. I still have stored in a big plastic box most of the Comic books I
bought as a kid. I have an extensive music collection (mostly on records),
again products of my youth. I have a fairly extensive library of books on
varied interests, although some people might be surprised about all of the
Science Fiction, Mystery and Action titles contained in my personal library.
All have been built up over time. And someday they will be all handed off to
someone else, who will most likely decide that while they might have been worth
something to me, they aren’t valuable to them. I get that. And I am also okay
with that because I have enjoyed the
process of collecting them.
I am convinced that the luckiest people on the planet are those who get
up in the morning and want to go to work because they enjoy that part of their
lives. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t good to get out and let their hair down
on the weekend, but for them, the
totality of life is –for the most part, we all have some stressful days –
enjoyable. These are the ones that show up for work the day after they win the
lottery. Work is no longer about money; even their job is part of enjoying life.
A recent study released things that you can do to make yourself happy.
And not surprisingly one of the keys to happiness is in working an area that
helps to challenge and fulfill you – working in a place where you would choose
to be even if you didn’t have any need to make money. Your workplace should be
a place where you enjoy the process as well as the end result. Money alone is not enough compensation for the amount
of time that you will spend on the job during your lifetime – there has to be
more to your work than just the salary you bring home. The trick to happiness
is finding the right job for you.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading:
Ecclesiastes 4
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