Wise Warnings for the Worker

Ecclesiastes 4:4-6

Happy Labor Day!

Work is an important part of our lives that the pulpit doesn’t address often enough.  Dorthy Sayers once wrote: “How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?”

So here is some wisdom from Solomon… some things to avoid in the workplace:

Envy

⁴ And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Harold G. Coffin defined envy as “the art of counting the other fellow’s blessings instead of your own.”  Keeping up with the Joneses is an impossibility.  The Joneses are everywhere.  Envy of others will push you into a cycle of work that will wear your out… body and soul.  And in the end it is a poor motivation for work.

Laziness

⁵ The fool folds his hands and ruins himself.

Working for just a paycheck to cash and buy things to keep up with the neighbors produces a lot of lazy people at the job site…  watching the time clock and walking around in a haze… working hard only to avoid work.

Remember:  Laziness doesn’t pay.  And not just in work, but in life… to put off responsibility is to fold your hands and ruin yourself.

Work-a-holism
⁶ Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

Always being the last car on the lot, beating the secretary in, bring home work in your briefcase, telling your family… I’m going to be late again… develops within you a hurry sickness.

What is hurry sickness?

Meyer Friedman, in his book, Treating Type A Behavior defines it as “a continuous struggle … to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time.”  You know if you have that sickness if you saved some work to do over labor day.

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Okay, that is your labor day lesson… now go enjoy your day off.