by Chris Brady
My friend and author Tim Marks was recently invited by another of my friends (and often co-author) Orrin Woodward to give a talk describing the Biblical foundation for work. Tim illuminated how our society has, to some extent, lost its respect for hard work, and instead admires leisure and even decadence. Certain occupations, and even those who do them, are looked down upon. This is contrary to the teachings of the Bible which reveals that while laboriousness was added to man’s existence as a curse at the fall, work itself has always been and always was intended to be noble.
For wonderful examples of this I need look no further than my own family. My father and both grandfathers worked honestly at difficult jobs for a lifetime, doing themselves honor as they quietly served their families through challenging times (for my grandfathers, this meant the Depression, a world war, and a couple of “police actions” called Korea and Viet Nam. For my father this meant the OPEC oil embargo, the Watergate years, the Carter administration, disco music, and the dominance of the 1970’s Pittsburgh Steelers – tough times all)! (Also, don’t even get me started on the work of my grandmothers and mother – this page is not long enough to do the subject justice for either gender). The truth is that while some jobs are certainly more universally desirable than others, all honest work is noble and plays its part in a prosperous society. Those who denigrate hard work simply don’t understand the foundations upon which they stand that allow them to hold their ignorant views in the first place. I, for one, will be forever in the debt of people like my parents and grandparents who worked hard their whole lives so I could have the life I now enjoy.
It is interesting to me how things happen. Just one day after Tim Marks shared his thought-provoking information, I received a link to the following video. In it, I think Mike Rowe does a respectable job of teaching us to respect jobs, he works hard at telling us to admire hard work, and he is quite skillful in making an appeal for people to become more skillful (if only it were possible with my writing)!
Enjoy the video.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo-cUZ2aRKc?rel=0&w=560&h=315]
Sincerely,
Chris Brady