Several years ago a popular country singer named Johnny Paycheck made a song very popular entitled “Take This Job and Shove It, I Ain’t Working Here No More.” It is very interesting that he struck a responsive chord in America because studies show that most folks would like to take their job and shove it. Some recent surveys show that 75% of the people are not happy in their jobs.
I want to propose a better song – “Take This Job and Love It, I Am Where God Wants Me To Be.” We spend more time at work than we do at anything else – except sleeping. If we are not happy with our job, then we are wasting most of our lives. Let me give some reasons why we ought to take our job and love it.
First, it represents God’s provision for us. God provides that job. In a day when unemployment is so high and people are having a difficult time getting a job – we ought not approach our job with grumbling, but with gratitude.
In Genesis 2:15 Moses makes it clear that God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it. God gave him a job. I hope you will go to work this week thanking God for giving you a place to work. Thank Him for your hands and feet that enable you to do your job more effectively. Thank God for your eyes to help you see how you can improve. Thank God for your mind that helps you be more creative. If God has given us a place to work, then it is where He wants us to be.
Secondly, love your job because God is present there with you. You don’t go anyplace that God doesn’t accompany you. I hope you see your work each day as an opportunity to partner with God in doing it. He is present.
One of the great devotional classics was written by Brother Lawrence. He joined a monastery. He couldn’t preach. He couldn’t teach. He couldn’t sing. They gave him the job of washing dishes and peeling potatoes. That wouldn’t be considered very high up the pay grade. But he wrote a devotional classic saying how he felt God’s presence in everything he was doing. Remember – he was a Roman Catholic who believed that the communion elements were literally the body and blood of Christ. He said that he felt the presence of God as much when he was washing the dishes and peeling potatoes as he did when he was receiving the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper!
Thirdly, love your job because of God’s purpose for giving you a job. The purpose is not to see how much money you can make – you can never make enough money. The purpose is to have enough to meet your basic needs and to share with others to help them meet their needs. Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said, “Let him perform with his own hands what is good in order that he may have something to share with those who have need.” (Ephesians 4:28)
A brilliant young man was serving as a missionary to Japan. An American entrepreneur came to him and offered him twice what he was making, then three times, then five times his salary. Each time the boy refused. The man came back and offered him twenty times what he was making. Again the boy refused. The business man told the boy that he didn’t quite understand and asked him this question, “Is our job offer high enough?” The boy said, “Your job offer is high enough, but your job isn’t.”
When people ask you what you make – don’t answer it in terms of money, but in terms of how big a difference you are making in the lives of others.
You will spend more time at work than anywhere else – I hope you thank God that He has provided it, that you are experiencing His presence in what you are doing, and that you are fulfilling God’s purpose for your life.
Take Your Job and Love It!
