God's Work Ethic

When I was younger I was told that people from the Midwest have the hardest work ethic in America. My grandfather lives in New Mexico, and told us that business owners in the southwest hire Mid-westerners to keep other workers productive and efficient. So, I grew up thinking that my work ethic was a golden ticket to anyplace in the world, and moving to South Carolina has allowed me to test that theory.

I quickly got a job as a landscaper in South Carolina, which was great because it allowed me to work with a team of other men.  Once the guys found out that I was training to become a pastor, they started asking me a lot of questions about my faith, which made each day exciting and rewarding for me.

I found out that the guys claimed to be Christians, but they didn't know what it meant to live as one. They didn't understand God's love, they didn't realize the importance of living with integrity, and they hadn't been to church in a while. I was their unofficial “pastor,” and it was my goal to encouraging them to grow into mature Christians. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay very long because of the heat.

Near the end of my first week, I began to suffer from severe cramps and heat rashes. It was discouraging, but I figured that I would acclimate if given enough time. I quickly realized that I was wrong. The following week became worse, so I told my boss that I needed to quit. I have never quit a job after a week and a half, but I assumed he would be disappointed in me. Instead, his reaction surprised me.

He told me that he understood the heat was too much for me, but asked me to consider coming back in the fall. He told me that coming back in September would give me time to acclimate to the SC weather, and he would even work around my school hours. I was even more shocked as he continued:

“Josh, we need guys like you, guys that have that strong Christian ethic and can encourage others to work hard.”

The boss didn't see my work ethic as something new to the south, he saw it as something God commanded for Christians. Colossians 3:23-24 says that we should always work hard, remembering that we are ultimately working for God. Yes, we have an earthly boss, but our true master is Jesus.

But why is this so important? Why does God repeatedly tell His children to work hard and honor their bosses?

Because it's the most loving thing we can do.

Let me give you a quick example from the landscaping job:

One of the responsibilities we had while landscaping was laying sod (dirt and grass) around newly constructed homes. We had to finishing sodding the house once we started it, because otherwise the heat would destroy the lawn. I would get so frustrated when one of the guys would slack off, because it put an extra burden on everyone else. We had to finish, which meant working harder and staying later. The heat was already too much for me, so the extra time in the sun was physically hurting me.

I realized while I was at the landscaping company, that life is a team sport even when you try to play independently. Your actions have consequences, and those consequences affect other people as well as you. The bible says it like this:

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Galatians 6:7).

So when a Christian works hard, they are removing the burden off of another person, but when a Christian is lazy, they are placing an extra burden upon someone else. Stop and think about how frustrated you feel when someone's poor choices have effected you. Do you really want to put someone else in that position? Not only that, but what would Jesus do?

Christians should work hard and make sacrifices, because that's what God does. He created the world, let us use it, we broke it, and then He came to earth as Jesus and began to fix it. He could have made us clean own mess, but He knew that we couldn't do it. Just think about it; we are at the pinnacle of human existence, and there are most sex slaves in the world than ever before. When will our “progress” prevent us from buying and selling people like cattle? Probably never. People just keep finding new and creative ways to destroy each other. We need God to help us, and thankfully He does. He offers us a fresh start with new life.