Was listening to a conversation at the grocery store as I stood in line awaiting my turn for checkout...at the next register over a young man snapped at what I presume was his mother, Forget it! I dont want to be a bagboy! Thats for losers! Immediately I felt embarrassed for the nearest employed bagger, and noticed there werent any close by, so I claimed the loser tag as a former bagboy myself, and winced. Mom must have suggested her unemployed youngster pick up a job application and instead was served with a suggestion by the child with her that he was waiting for a better opportunity. Work is noble, I thought to myself. Regardless of the job, the right attitude can dress it up with nobility. Whatever your do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men...it is the Lord Christ whom you serve, Paul wrote at Colossians 3:23 and 24b. God expects us to serve and to work. Work was given to mankind as a special responsibility and conveyance of divine authority over the created order. Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Genesis 1:28) He didnt ask us if we were interested in the job. He just told us to do it. I wanted to shake an awareness into the young man (my flesh reacting in a way that saw a woodshed in his future) but heard the woman reply with a note of firmness. Fine. Just quit complaining about never having any money. It dont grow on trees, you know. I think I heard him respond with a Whatever, and he moved to a spot where he started chunking their purchases into plastic bags at the end of the checkout lane. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, If a man is called a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well. Tonight I thought of sweeping floors, bagging groceries, scrubbing toilets (all part of my own work resume) and reminded myself how grateful I was to have those jobs when I did and how proud I was of doing those jobs well. The young mans snappish response to his mother was met instantly by an internal rebuke from Gods word at 2 Thessalonians 3:10b - If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. Miss a meal or two my young friend...bagging groceries might not seem outside the realm of productive work any longer. Just miss a few. You just might change your mind...and your attitude.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 03:46:49 +0000
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