The Stewardship of Work

By: Barry G. Allen- President and CEO

As we approach Labor Day 2011 let those of us who have jobs be ever more grateful and ever more mindful and helpful to those who do not.

And, on this Labor Day 2011 I want to call upon us Christians to enlarge our perspective on the work we do to make a living. Regardless of what we do as work it should be considered as more than just making a living but also making a life. It should be seen as a way to invest our lives. Each one of us is on a mission to live in a redemptive way the time God has given us. In our workplace environments we are stewards of our time as well as stewards of the opportunities to serve the Lord with purpose, love and passion. By finding mission and purpose in our jobs, we are able to endure any circumstance that may arise, and that ability to endure is what gives dignity to the work.

One of my favorite quotes was spoken by Winton Churchill: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” I encourage you to incorporate that spirit into whatever job you have and from which you make a living.

Also, this Labor Day is a good time to reflect upon the mind boggling extent of creation, the complexity of God’s work and the awesome responsibility which is ours as God’s gift from the perspective of the glorious Davidic hymn of praise in Psalm 8. The Psalm begins with “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Then the question is asked “what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” And the Psalmist declared “you made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beast of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea….” Wow, what a stewardship responsibility!