What Is Work?

Work. We all do it. A lot of what we call work is for pay. Yes, good old employment. But much of what we do every day in life is work too. Labor. Effort. Expenditure of energy. Some of the work we do is necessary for our lives perking along on track. Think about preparing meals or even going out to go to a restaurant to eat a meal someone else prepares. It takes effort. This time of year, many of us are absorbed with the work of getting our taxes done so we can stay in the good graces of Uncle Sam. And for many of us that is dreaded drudgery. But is everything we put effort into work? What is work?

Sometimes we talk about a project or an undertaking as a “labor of love.” Many times, this is something we do for someone else. But occasionally, laboring for something we love is purely for our own pleasure. Think about a potter spending hours at the wheel creating things. Yes, perhaps to sell. But maybe just for the sheer pleasure of molding the clay and firing the glaze. Keeping the hands strong and the fingers nimble. Is this work? Some people love a spotless kitchen floor and a shiny toilet bowl or a marvelously mown lawn and meticulously manicured shrubs which require energy and effort but may feel like immense joy to them. Not for all of us! Yet the satisfaction of achieving what one desires often outweighs the labor expended. Could that have a bearing on whether we think of something as work or as a labor of love?

Author and theologian Fredrick Buechner has famously defined the term vocation for us. The word has its origins in the Latin word meaning to call. Most of us think of a career or a profession as our vocation, a calling, but it can still sound and feel like work. Buechner helps us understand more of the distinction between work and love’s labor as he writes in his book Wishful Thinking, 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. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

Deep gladness. What creates that in us? Seeing the results of our efforts? A task completed? The satisfaction of feeling that our energy has been well spent? Making a difference in the lives of others? Work or vocation? We know it when we feel it… dreaded drudgery or deep gladness. For what or whom do we willingly roll up our shirtsleeves?

Reflections of Rebecca Taylor, Pastor, penned without the assistance of AI.