Work 'til I die
Dear diary,
Today I met a lawyer. He went out for a five-mile run in the morning, went to the gym for one hour, and then after that went into the office and started work. Then he slumped over in his desk. His assistant asked him if he needed to go to the hospital. The lawyer shook it off and said, “No, I'll continue to work. Then at 3:00 p.m. he found himself on the floor and called out to his assistant saying, “Maybe you should call the hospital now.”
The ambulance came and by the time he got to the hospital it was too late. He had a stroke. He couldn't speak, he couldn't see, and couldn't walk. He had worked himself to near death.
He’s spent the past year at the hospital in rehab learning his skills. It's a miracle that he was able to regain any function at all. Now, today he is sitting outside at Starbucks with his best friend (his dog) enjoying the Sun, working remotely at 75% of capacity pre-stroke. I wouldn't be back at work after a catastrophic event such as this, even with a miraculous recovery.
Perhaps he needs something to do, some way of integrating back into his former life. For me, however, I would be taking a sabbatical, evaluating what's important in life.
In the Letter to the Romans it says:
“They were given a spirit of stupor,
eyes that would not see
and ears that would not hear,
down to this very day.”
And David says,
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see,
and bend their backs forever.”
I ask this question: did these people stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather, through their trespasses salvation has come!
I would not wish to become ensnared by my work. I am on a sabbatical right now. It’s not anything I gloat over, it’s not as glamorous as quiet quitting. Sure, I would love to make money, work remotely, and travel the world but this sabbatical is a time for sabbath. A period of rest and reflection. I am taking a break from work because of God. I truly don’t know what’s in store but I don’t want to be ensnared by my work and must free my mind from the working world’s traps. I don’t want to let the office table become a snare for me and fall and hit my head on the desk (I’ve already done this voluntarily so many times). It is hard but there is something greater at stake than reinserting myself into the rat race and hamster wheel of work.
It seems this lawyer might be a slave to his own work. Whatever his options are he has chosen to gradually put back on the yoke of work after rising from his stroke. It was great to see him walking off into the sunset with his dogs. Yet, sadly, I know what awaits him at home - work.
Maybe he doesn’t understand what he’s doing, doing the very thing he hates rather than practicing what he wants. For me I find myself researching for jobs and then stopping midway through preparation, for it is not a mindless search. Though it is very easy to get caught up in the search and pursuit of work, I stop because I realize that is what the world would have and expects of me. What I am to say? For those whom did not pursue faith yet instead pursued faith by works failed. The man who pursued a righteousness by the law vis a vis works did not succeed in achieving the law; yet the person who did not pursue a righteousness of works has somehow attained righteousness from the law (not from works) rather out of faith. How can that be so?
Jesus (citing a passage from the Old Testament and referring to himself as the stone) says,
“The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes.”
I don’t know if that lawyer is saved. My heart’s desire is for that man to be saved from his work and more. I know some people may have enthusiasm but it is misdirected zeal. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and then seeking to establish their own, they cling to works as a way of getting right with God by trying to keep to the law of commandments and deeds. But Jesus has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, anyone who believes in him is made right with God. We don’t need to cast Him aside in our effort to build our own kingdom by our own hands, only to reencounter Him in a fall after our work has failed, realizing that Jesus is the cornerstone upon which we should be building our foundation. All have fallen short of the glory of God. For those who are saved, we died and were buried with Jesus. But just as Christ was then raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, we also can now live new lives. We don’t have to go back to that old life.
There is no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit, which is life in Jesus, has set us free from the natural law of sin and death. Every person dies, it is the outcome of the natural law - no matter how hard we try to work against it. God has overcome the natural law which leads to death and fulfilled the requirements of the law through another means. In his Son, Jesus Christ, God took on the form of man, with all its fleshly weaknesses, to be a substitute for the sin by which the natural law requires a penalty. God condemned sin through Jesus’ flesh and death so that the requirement of the natural law is now fulfilled, and those of us who call on Jesus can now walk by the law of the Spirit and escape physical death.
This is what captivates me. God’s miraculous mercies of healing and gifts of grace have set me free from being a wage slave. I am free from work, free to do good works. I hope this man realizes this too. My freedom is not determined by the level of my work or the outcome of my work but by the work already done by Jesus on the cross. To be released from death and free… to work, rather than work to live. Mercy and Grace indeed! 'Tis an amazing thing.