When I was a child, like many other children, I waited for instruction on what to do from my teachers, parents, and other adult authorities in my world. I did homework because I "had to". I cleaned my room because my parents "made me". I went to bed because I wasn't "allowed" to stay up. At some point as a teenager I began to rebel, because I began doing things from a place of internal motivation. I started a business, I read books, I began to set my own schedule for the most part. My parents gave me the freedom to make more of my own choices, and the things that I didn't want to do, but had to anyway, became irritating interruptions. When we work because we're externally motivated to do so-- because we have to-- it can be miserable. Whether it's because parents or bosses tell us to do it, or we do it because we feel we have no choice because we have bills to pay, the obligation of it can suffocate. But when we find joy in the work for its own sake, we can take pleasure in the very same tasks. When we recognize the value of work, we can embrace it and be thankful for it-- not for the paycheck it might generate, but just for the task itself. Don't be a sluggard. You work by choice-- whether that's employment or just chores at home. Embrace the work, enjoy the work, and thank God for it!
Readings: Exodus 10:1-12:13; Matthew 20:1-28; Psalm 25:1-15a; Proverbs 6:6-11
