The Sweet Spot of Labor

Word from Wiese

4 September 2024

Dear Friends in Faith,

Growing up, the rock group Loverboy produced the hit, “Everybody’s Working for the Weekend.” Weekends are fun. Including three-day weekends like the recent Labor Day Weekend. But it’s a bit sad if the song also implies our Monday through Friday workweeks must be endured while weekends get to be enjoyed.

Finding the right “labor”—whether the job that pays us or the efforts we choose as volunteers—is tricky sometimes. Fredrick Buechner’s sage advice on the topic of vocation has steered thousands. See what you think:

“’Vocation’ comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a man is called to by God.

There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Super-ego, or Self-Interest.

By and large a good rule for finding out is this. The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing TV deodorant commercials, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b). On the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a) but probably aren’t helping your patients much either.

Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (Originally published in Wishful Thinking.)

For most of us, inevitably, there will be life chapters when our work is “you gotta do what you gotta do.” But my prayer for family and friends alike is that the Holy Spirit will grant you the wisdom, courage and opportunity to spend a good chunk of your time in the sweet spot of your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger.

Questions for Reflection:

On a scale of 1 to 10, to what extent does your current job combine a world need and your passion? Does your job lean more to serving your needs or the world’s needs?
Finding our sweet spots can be tough. If you currently experience a “sour spot,” what possible changes, if any, do you think the Holy Spirit is whispering to you for consideration.
If you feel restricted by your 9-5 job, how does it allow you to fulfill a calling of passion at other times?
Some argue that older people were brought up to “live to work” while younger people “work to live.” Do you agree with this? Is one better than the other?

Let us pray.

Dear God, help us remember Martin Luther’s instruction that “the Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” Comfort us in knowing, as the song lyrics go, that regardless of which highway or hedge we show up for work, however we labor, we can give you glory in our work, treating others with your fruits of the Spirit, and steering our work with love of neighbor in mind. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Christ’s hope,

P Fritz