WORK--You won't return home without it

As one, who, from the outset of this corpus of little essays, reflections, and observations, acknowledged the positive influence of great men, I also gratefully acknowledge the profound influence of the great women in my life (particularly my wives) and add with this essay yet another to my pantheon.  As a female counterpart to the astute Christian mentor of many of us—C. S. Lewis—I add his British contemporary, Dorothy L. Sayers (1893-1957)—essayist, novelist, poet, theologian, dramatist and scholar. In 1942 she published an essay titled ‘Vocation in Work’, in  A Christian Basis for the Post War World (WW II). When I read her essay, I immediately resonated to it.  It helped gel my views on the value of work, which I give here.

For us in our time work is often viewed as but a means to some (we think) higher—usually some economic, commercial, or leisure-focused—end. I, Ms. Sayers, and other old- schoolers would suggest a contrary view.  The economic end taken alone or intentionally chosen over other options is ultimately a dead end.

In the opening years of the 1940’s, a time of economic uncertainty, a coalition of religious leaders in Britain concluded that “the sense of a Divine vocation must be restored to a man’s daily work.” An esteemed leader in the Church to which I belong some ten years earlier voiced a similar plea: “Let us as a people re-enthrone work as a guiding principle in our lives” (Heber J. Grant). He said this in response to the troubles of the early years of the Great Depression in this country which soon spread to Europe.

‘Restored?’ ‘Re-enthroned?’

 As much as this prescient man knew that people needed food, they needed hope; they needed purpose; they needed vision; they needed meaningful work and work needed them.

Mr. Grant posed a more correct view of work than the usual, by traditional religious interpretations, rather negative interpretation of the so-thought-of work from the beginning of life on earth as being the ‘curse of Adam’: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life . . . in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, (i.e., you must work) till thou return unto the ground; for out of it thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Genesis 3: 17, 19).

But look closer.  Notice that the ground was cursed, not Adam (man). The antecedent for the ‘curse’—the partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—by our first parents was, rather, to become the catalyst for God’s gracious response. Readers of scripture also seemed to overlook the caveat in that verse, “for thy sake.” Because of this choice God sent to earth a Divine Redeemer—to redeem fallen man and to redeem the fallen earth.  It was all part of the plan. 

Remember, too, before Adam partook of the fruit of the tree, he was told to “dress this garden (Eden); keep it (or take good care of it).” He was moreover given dominion (stewardship) of all living things and the Earth itself. To me that means purposeful, productive, meaningful and rewarding work was his (Adam’s—man’s) charge, but would now be carried out in a different venue—in a world where things wouldn’t be so easy for him. He would be required to constantly make choices. He learned that the Creator Himself not only valued work, but it was the very thing that comprised the focus of His—God’s—life. Moses, recorded God as revealing to him God’s purpose in the creation of man: “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 1:39).  God set the pattern; meaningful work was to be man’s work also.  Man needed to work out his salvation but to keep God in the equation because he couldn’t do it alone. 

To repeat: God was and is a creator—that is His work.   Man should be a creator also—that is his work.

And how is it done?  It is for us to turn to our own work—whatever we are motivated to do, whatever we are called to do, whenever we can do it.  Serve work that is intrinsically compelling for you—something that you can be really good at if you will discipline yourself to put in the time. If it is good for you (and it will be if you are creative, that is, you too are a creator) it will surely be good for others.  But note this caution: your chosen vocation will not necessarily be found by simply looking within and finding your passion, as graduation speakers are prone to say, but rather by looking without and asking what life is asking of you.  When you ask, ask to know what life is calling you to do.  And then do it.

 One who follows this pattern will be satisfied because he will have lived a life of purpose—and you will always find it will include other people and that your vocation in some way served them. 

A divine vocation will always serve others.