What is meaningful work? Do you do it? Do I? What even is it?
I wound up launching into my day today with significantly more speed than I like. I kinda like to eeeeeease into my day….. you know, coffee, fake fire, a little reading from God’s true Word. That’s the perfect morning! But not today.
Today, Frankenmuth (a random insurance company) thought my “meaningful work” involved a rent roll; and the work.comp. auditor thought their year-end assessment was my “meaningful work”. I believed they both were wrong. But it did bring me to ponder…… what is my “meaningful work”? What really matters? Obviously these numbers mattered to them….. and so you respect that and if you’re going to keep the policies enforce, then that has to matter to me, as well. Humph….. I don’t know —
Thinking about all this brought me to remember a conversation I had just yesterday with my little 16-year old neighbor friend, Shelby. She came by and we were talking about school and she was telling me about her literature classes and the stories that she’s assigned to write. She’s in one of the dual-enrollment classes at a university right now and I asked: “wow — is it really hard…. being on a college level and all?”…. to which she commented that it really hasn’t been…… and that had surprised her. She then went on to compare the college literature class with her high school KCA literature class, saying that the high school class had turned out to be much harder than the college class. Interesting! She added that the high school teacher (who was, by the way, her all-time favorite) was extremely tough in her grading. She would comment on every paragraph of Shelby’s stories, marking it all…. saying it was good — or that it wasn’t, — telling why, challenging her to reconsider how she had worded it, etc. And this teacher had even verbalized that she was tough on her because she knew she was capable of more. On the university level she seemed to just get a quick “A” without much comment one way or the other. But she had to work extremely hard to get a good grade under that high school teacher. Isn’t that interesting. Same girl…. same subject….. same ability…… and yet, ……. differing results. And it made me consider the high school teacher and the way she approached her work….. it seemed very meaningful to me!
As I was thinking about Shelby…… I wondered….would she say that her “meaningful work” is writing short stories? It’s what has been assigned to her within her daily school work. As I was punching in my insurance numbers, I was thinking….. maybe I’d rather have Shelby’s meaningful work today! I like to write stories! And this led me to think about everybody else’s meaningful work —
Our little 3 year old and 7 year old grandsons have worlds to explore in their rocket ship! Is that their meaningful work?
Our 15 year old grandson has basketballs to DUNK….. is that his meaningful work?
Our 18 year old grandson has songs to write….. is that his meaningful work?
Our 11 year old grandson has mountains to climb and hard things to do……. and pizza to eat, Pals dogs to love, Jasper dogs to play with,…… is this his meaningful work?
I was reading in the read-thru the other day,…… I was in Exodus 31, where Moses was organizing the building of the wilderness tabernacle — all under the guidance and authority of God.
v.1-6 The Lord said to Moses, “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you:
So in whatever work we do, what I learn from Bezalel and Oholiab is that there is zero place for pride. Do you think they had any tendency to point out any of the intricacies of their work….. “well this sure wasn’t easy — not just anybody can carve wood or cut stones or know how to do this or have THIS particular ability, or devise what I devised…..blah, blah, blah!!!” The operative words in Exodus 31:1-6 are:
“See, I have called…..”
“I have filled…..”
“I have appointed……”
“I have given…..”
It is all the Lord’s doing! God wanted the Tabernacle built….. and thus He called and filled and appointed and gave, in accordance with His plan, His will, and His sovereignty.
No doubt the Lord still has things He’s accomplishing in our world today…… He still has things He wants done…. back then it was building a Tabernacle, today it might be building young children and students into the people He will need them to be, going forward in the world. It might involve writing beautiful stories, or pensive music that grips our heart, or exciting moments of physical exertion, or tender moments when bravery rises up and inspires us to do hard things, or fun moments when our imagination entertains the impossible, or even routine/seemingly mundane tasks that we don’t think will matter……. yet they do.
I have a friend who is HIGHLY SKILLED in woodworking. He is rather Oholiab’ish indeed. And he’s told me before that his favorite Bible verse is Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.
So in my day today, even if it is just crunching insurance data (with the occasional creative story thrown in for good measure), I can do it heartily as for the Lord, being grateful for the work He has given me. Our work gives purpose to our day and as God’s children, we can know that whatever He calls us to today, it has meaning. HE will give it meaning! HE gives meaning to ALL things!
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