Be Happy in Your Work

There is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why they are here! No one will bring them back from death to enjoy life in the future. (Ecclesiastes 3:22 NLT)

What do you do nine to five to put a roof over your head and food on the table? Are you happy in your work? Scripture tells us "Whoever does not work should not eat." (2 Thessalonians 3:10 NLT)

Most of us grew up, attended school from K-12. Some went on to college and others got right to work. Often those getting right to work did what their father did, perhaps even at the same company. Generations of some families pursued the same vocation year after year. It was almost as if it was predetermined that this was their lot in life.

We worked all week to earn an income so the rent is paid and food is on table for our family, or even for our self, if we are not married. Weekends are times to be happy and forget the toils of the past week.

Then came the age of the charge card. My first one was a Sears card and I had to convince them to give it to me. Today I must get a dozen pre-approved applications in the mail weekly! No longer did we have to work and save to be able to afford some the rewards of life like a television, stereos, automobiles, and other things. We could get them now and promise to pay later. But with what? We were already spending what we made. Where was the payment for the charge card to come from?

The only way was to get a second job. Then we could pay off the balance and be free. But the more we worked the more we felt we deserved more things, so we charged them and the cycle continued. So we worked nine-to-five to pay the rent and put food on the table. Then we worked evenings to pay the charge cards. Then we gave up our weekends of happy times to cover more of our debt. Then our wives had to get jobs and we all worked to pay for the things we “needed” even though we no longer had time to enjoy them.

With mom and dad working all the time, someone had to take care of their children. The caretakers may have been grandparents or other relatives, but more often strangers at daycare centers were raising our children and teaching them their moral values; all for the sake of living a lifestyle beyond our capability.

Society, television, and video games are now raising our children filling them with the current slant on morality. The government is deciding what is good and what is bad for them all while we work to pay the bills.

I believe God has a plan for each of us and what we do to support ourselves is part of that plan. He gave us talents to be used and as we use them we will be able to support ourselves and our families and be happy doing so.

Not everyone we meet becomes our friend. We meet many in our life walk and only a few are more than acquaintances. Some we really click with and we tend to stay with them at least for a season. I believe it is the same with our jobs. Rarely do we start a job right after school and happily stick with it for the rest of our life. With each job we learn something and God moves us on to another place until we end up with the job He planned for us all along.

My first job other than shoveling snow or cutting lawns when I was a young teenager, was delivering newspapers. I was a paperboy. My route consisted of about one hundred customers and I delivered seven days a week, afternoons and mornings on Sundays. I enjoyed this first job even though it was work to lug those papers stuffed into my paper bag as I walked from house to house. And on Sundays I had to drag them around on my little red wagon because they were so heavy.

Was this to be my vocation? No, but I learned a lot about responsibility, how to deal with all kinds of people, and how to handle finances. God uses where we are at to teach us things we will need later on in life to fulfill the plan He has for us.

I have had many jobs since that first entrepreneurial one, from scooping ice cream, to working at a bank, to programming manager at an insurance company, to data processing manager at an eyeglass frame manufacturer, to being an entrepreneur once again by having my own Computer Consulting business. Now, in addition to that business, I am on the full time faculty at Rhode Island College teaching, and enjoying what I do.

I have never had a job I did not enjoy and can see where God had a hand in every aspect of my life.

As I look back over my life, I can see how God used every one of those workplaces to teach me what I needed to learn to be able to help others and bring them to an understanding of how He wants to use them in their life walk. Today we are Healing Evangelists teaching others about God and what He has for them to do right here, and right now.