Work
Written August 26th, 2021
Father Seraphim Rose said…
"It is later than you think. Hasten, therefore, to do the work of God”
Work has always been something funny in my life. I was spoiled as a kid to not have chores to do. Grandma — my mom — didn't want anyone else doing laundry or the dishes or vaccuming or anything else. So I grew up getting to play all day and not have to do anything.
On the other hand I often worked on my uncle's farm in the summers cutting thistles. They were 6 feet tall and it would takes days and days to clear a field of them. My younger brother and I would work from 6 am until 2 or 3 in the afternoon; until it was too hot to work. So while in one way I was spoiled in other areas I knew what hard work was.
Another example of a different sort of work was exercise. Growing up, and in school I hated P.E. and sports. I did as little as possible. Often I did as nothing as possible. I would walk the mile in highschool — making the coach and all the other kids sit on the grass and wait for me to finish. I would make every excuse not to participate in any and all physical activity. Once another kid threw his [baseball] bat behind him after hitting the ball in softball and it flew back and hit me in the knee. It really did hurt and my knee really did swell up but I was still having my mom write me notes to stay inside from recess and be exempt from P.E. two months later. I remember standing at the door in my 4th grade classroom that led outside, watching the other kids at recess, and Mrs. Beach, my teacher, working at her desk stopping and saying. "Don't you think you're better enough to at least play at recess?" (Poor her was probably tired of me hanging about during HER free time.) I replied, "Probably won't be too long," then dramatically limped back to my desk. I was literally willing to not at play at school in order to not have to do anything physical at school.
But then after graduation from high school uncle J. and I got into bodybuilding. Really into it. We thought we might compete one day. So suddenly I was doing 2 hours of cardio work a day and another hour or more of weight lifting. We would wake up at 5 am to have time to do an hour of cardio before he had to leave for school. We would work out the moment he got home and then do more cardio before dinner. Food never tasted so good, bland and fatless as it was.
Looking back on my life now there is no question in mind what times I was happier. What times I felt nore content and what times I felt I was really living life.
Cutting thistles and working out. That was living. Doing what I wanted all day and "relaxing" all the time? That was a poor substitute for life. A shadow of what life should have been, or could have been.
What's amazing is I didn't really learn this until a few years ago.
As you know, Grandpa was a photographer. He was home all week except Saturdays and sometimes Sunday afternoons. From my perspective this was what fathers did. Sadly I never understood how hard he was actually working. He wasn't just hanging out, looking at Facebook — thank God we didn't have computers. or internet then — and just making money. That's what, sadly, I really believed until recently. He was calling hundreds if not thousands of brides-to-be a week. He was spot correcting photos — something he had to do with actual paint, by hand! He was developing film, meeting with brides and grooms, ordering stock (photo albums, frames, etc.) and, of course, taking pictures. He was home all the time but would often emerge only at dinner time, done with his day.
My misconception of work finally came into mу work as an adult and affected it greatly.
I had "job jobs" before my advertising company. I worked at the Olive Garden, my first job, then at the zoo, then at Silver Dollar City for years. But when I finally started working "for myself", my real, lazy, self came awake again. (Let me real that this is not my real self anymore. Nor was it my REAL self at all even then... it was my selfish, sinful self.) I believed a lot of lies then. Paramount to them was that I was working hard and there was no more that I could do or should be doing. Did I have lots of money? That was because I was working hard. Did I not have enough money? That wasn't my fault.. I was working hard.
The truth is I did work hard many times through those years. But, the truth is also that I felt sorry for myself any time I had to work hard. I felt, always, like I needed more time to relax."
We were made to work. Even before the fall of man God had given Adam and Eve work to do. I believe we will have work to do for all eternity. Work is what makes life worth living — or one of the things that does so. Work makes relaxing possible. It makes food taste better. It makes happiness stronger. It makes sorrow and suffering more bearable.
Since I have had my job, and now that it is officially full-time, I have learned this truth, these truths, again and again. Being tired, worn out, exhausted, is all worth it! Doing it all with thanksgiving... that is the key.
We are made to work. We are also made to live a Eucharistic life, a life of thanksgiving! Being thankful and going about everything we do as if we are doing it for the Lord God is how to work. Indeed in our work we are giving back to God that which he has given us. We are sanctifying our bodies, our time, our energies and thought, indeed we are sanctifying all of creation. Offering it back to the Creator. Thine own of thine own.
As I write this you all, my children, have started the new school year at our new school. It is the first week and the first time you have gone 5 days a week. You are getting weary. Work is hard. What is amazing to me is I was planning writing this last week. Before I even knew how hard the week was going to be for you all. It was when I knew my job had offically became, or was becoming, full time that I wanted to write this. Because I knew then I would be tired in days and weeks and months and years to come. But I knew, and know, it is worth it. It is so worth it! And I am thankful for the time I have to work hard, for your sakes and for mine, and to be tired from that work. For, as Father Seraphim reminds us, it is later than we think.... so let’s be thankful, and let's work.