Love and Work
Last week
while reading a book by the inventor and engineer, John C. Lincoln, I was
reminded of a saying from one of those street corner philosophers I grew up
with;
“If you want
to hide the truth,” he said, “put it in a book.”
There in the
book entitled, Christ’s Object in Life,
were the words that made me stop and think (okay full disclosure here; this
whole book has, as the young folks say, ‘blew my head up.”)
“…work,
instead of being a curse is the greatest gift that [mankind] has.”
Lincoln goes
on to say that when we love what we do, truly love it, work is our salvation.
I love what I
do. I love that I get to do it. Even when it is hard and tiresome and
demanding, I love my work.
Most people cannot
say this because they will not say this.
The first step in loving someone or
something happens when you make the choice to do so.
No one and
nothing can make you love them. You must chose it and when you do, your choice
enables you to see beauty that you would not have seen before.
I somehow
knew this when I was a kid in Wilmington, Delaware cleaning houses and banks.
One day, I
decided to love what I did. When I did, my mind opened up to all of the
possibilities of life. The toilets I cleaned would one day be my own and I
would be grateful for the job that had made it so.
I am
grateful for the early morning flights, because I choose to be. No one makes me
write a blog, nor do they pay me to do so.
I love this
work because I have the opportunity to look at life and reflect it back to the
people who share in it.
Your work is
your salvation and while some of you may want to argue about who and how their
salvation is truly found, I will simply suggest this:
If you are not happy with the work in
this kingdom, how do you expect to see The Kingdom---on earth as it is in
heaven?
Be you, be loving, be
loving the work you do.
Bertice Berry, PhD.
As a Wilmington person, you might be interested to know that John C. Lincoln was devoted to the ideas of Henry George, which were one of the foundations on which Arden, Ardentown and Ardencroft were and are based.
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