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| “So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?” |
| —Ecclesiastes 3:22 |
“Work is supposed to be hard,” my dad remarked when I complained that wiring boats was difficult and that I itched all over.
When I turned twelve years old, my dad asked me if I thought I would want to go to college. I responded in the affirmative. He then said, “Well, you’d better get a job. Your mom and I will not be able to afford to pay for your college education.”
I did not realize that he was teasing me. So, I promptly went out and began to search for work.
Fortunately, though my hometown was landlocked, there was a boat store nearby that bought fiberglass shells and turned them into custom watercraft for use on inland lakes located forty or fifty miles away. The owner had started this somewhat unlikely business because he knew that, within five or six years, a huge flood control project on the Allegheny River would create a very large recreational lake located just a relatively few miles away.
After asking me some questions, the boat store owner hired me to wire the boats he was outfitting. I was already six feet tall and could easily reach into the space under the front of the boat where much of the electrical equipment was housed. The downside for me was that the fiberglass of the hull made me itch all over. Nevertheless, I worked there for about a year, learned a lot, and began to save all the money that I made. I also went through many bars of Lava soap getting those glass fibers off my skin at the end of each work day.
“Work is supposed to be hard.” That was the mantra of my father who had become an adult just a few years before the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing depression that had gripped our nation. He knew what it was to work hard for little wages. At no time in his life did he ever make more than $5,000 a year.
In his declaration of futility, when a life is lived without a connection to God, King Solomon asserts in Ecclesiastes 3:22:
So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?
The answer to Solomon’s question, which is why he wrote this somewhat disturbing Book of the Bible to begin with, comes from his understanding that the only power that can dispel futility in someone’s life is the relationship that person has with God.
How fortunate we are that, because of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have such a relationship. God is the one who can bring us to see what will happen after us. He is the One who instills joy into our labor. He is the One who can give us rejoicing hearts as we work hard.
Yes, God can give us joy in our labor. He can prompt us to sing while we work. He can give us relief from toil by making our hearts rejoice in Him.
Let’s begin another day by praising God that He is a “Burden Lifter.” He is One who can make even the hardest work tolerable. He can bless our labor and make our hard work have purpose and meaning beyond the mere task at hand. He is the One who can bring us to see what will happen after us.
