Work

Since we are starting the long Labor Day weekend let me attempt a few words about work. For most people work is work. Give them a winning lottery ticket and the first thing they do is quit their jobs. Someone once said, “If you love what you do you will never work another day in your life.” Let’s be honest. Most people don’t love what they do. In spite of that most also don’t hate what they do. For most people work is a fairly enjoyable but mandatory experience. We all have to pay the bills and put food on the table. Work at its best is a creative, intellectual, or physical activity that gives a person a sense of worth and usually meets a practical need that has a point. At its worse work is a meaningless activity that bores the mind, kills the spirit, and has no obvious point. This is usually what some people call busy work. Whatever you do, and however you feel about it, we can all find encouragement in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, “Even if you are a street sweeper, then be the best street sweeper you can be.” Some of the work I do is mundane. Some is boring. Sometimes I think it has no point. However, I try to still have the mindset of Martin Luther King and when I do that well I find opportunities within the mundane to touch people’s live in a positive and uplifting way. Like most things in life it’s not so much what you do as how you do it.