Most of my fellow full-time students, once school ends for the summer, get jobs. There are obvious motives for this, like wanting money to pay for said education or just with which to fool around, but could there be some less overt reasons for it as well? The summer after my senior year of high school, I had no job or anything else with which to occupy my time. Although a long stretch of time with no responsibilities may sound appealing, especially to those of us with very busy lives, at the time I was anything but happy. I wound up bored and listless for essentially the entire summer. Most significantly, I felt entirely unnecessary, as though I had no need to exist at all. This unfortunate experience led me to understand that there was more to work than merely earning money.
The Purpose of Work
At its core, work is an occupation. While this phrase may seem redundant, what I mean is that work is meant to be something that takes up time. Time was given by God to man that he might use it wisely. Work was also a gift from God, having existed in Eden before the fall. Thus, time and work were created and intended as complementary from the very beginning. This, I think, may be part of why I was so miserable, because I was failing to fulfill my basic purpose as a human.
Imitation of God in Work
From a different viewpoint that points to the same connection between work and humanity, one might also consider the fact that ordinary animals do not work. As one of my professors once explained, man was made like God in a way to surpass all other created beings, because he and he alone can choose whether or not to follow God’s path for him, which is something animals do by instinct. Similarly, animals have no intellect. Thus, since they cannot choose good or evil, nor understand life beyond the rudimentary knowledge of sense perception, they are actually unable to perform work, which is a higher action in its imitation of God, and as such is wholly ordered to men.
Why Else Work?
Additionally, what else could have caused my feeling of “unnecessariness”? One reason is that there is a certain amount of pride to be found in work for its own sake, as it gives one a purpose, a raison d’être as the French say. The pride is the result when one’s inherent abilities transition from in potentia to act; that is, from a mere feeling in the back of one’s mind that “I could do something,” to reality, or, “I have done this, and that is as it should be.” When one’s life, to include work and responsibilities, is properly ordered, he will benefit, whether consciously or unconsciously, from using his abilities for good, because God intended the appropriate fruits of everything, when rightly done, to be a kind of good.
If, on the other hand, one never uses the gifts that God gave him, not only could this (at least potentially) turn into a sin of sloth, but the privation of work, in all its varied forms, denies not only God but others, whether just one other person or half the world. Furthermore, gifts of self can and do escalate, when willingly given rather than withheld.
An example of this could be that a donation of food given to a homeless man would allow him to pull himself out of darkness and find a job. In a way more relatable for some of us, a kind word given to a worn-out friend might give him the morale to overcome a difficult situation. Even in the secular sphere, there’s a movement known as “Pay it forward,” meaning to give an act of kindness, even if a small one, to another. For if one person gives, even in a little way, to another, and he keeps the chain going, the sheer number of acts caused would illustrate how goodness like that keeps on giving, even (or perhaps especially) after its initial ending, and that is when presuming that such small gifts would not lead to any BIG acts!
The connection to work is that, when performed in earnest, that’s a description of its very nature—a gift of self. This is one reason why volunteering, as work without earthly gain, generates a greater spirit of joy in those who choose it—doing it for its own sake distills this gift of self into its purest form because it allows the giver to give of himself most freely, which makes his happiness in doing it even greater. From this one may draw that sloth, in contrast, is a form of being selfish—to our fellow men it is a refusal to give, and to God it is a refusal to obey His command to use our gifts.
This leads my pondering mind to wonder, was I really “unnecessary” as I presumed myself? Now I doubt it, but anything, even if it’s not intrinsically sinful, could be used in an evil way, which essentially sums up my struggle in thought process during that time.
Find a Good Balance
As a summary of what I learned, a certain type of inactivity (leisure) certainly has its place in the Christian life. But, choosing idleness as one’s way of life is never a good idea, as it takes one good too far at the expense of another. Surely those reading this knows how to appreciate a fun time just as I myself do, but that is no reason to forget to save some gratitude for your work, too! You just might find that it turns out to be more important than it appears.
