Labor Day, Under The Sun

dawned clear and warm. Should be a lovely hot and sunshine-y day (for those of you who like such things, I say from my cool and dark basement lair from which I'll not venture far today.)

Why don't we celebrate "rest from labor" day?

Ahh.. but we're supposed to. That's what the Sabbath is for. "Six days shall you labor and do all your work. But remember the sabbath day to keep it holy." Instead most of us work 5 days, and then work hard at recreation the other two, packing our weekends with stuff and not really getting rest.

Others, like me, have too much rest and wouldn't mind working at *least* 5 days, even 6. So I take up shopping and cooking and cleaning bathrooms to pass the time until I can work again. Soon, though! Offer accepted, release forms signed & faxed back, so the background checks can begin. Still hoping for a 9/17 start in the KC office for a week of orientation. That's if the background checks get done on time, they say. God, please expedite those.. I'm tired of sitting here. Wish school would start.

The textbook list got posted on the school website yesterday, and Amazon had them all. :) Only about $120 this time for half a dozen texts. No syllabus up yet, but .. it'll come. I'll wait to place the order until after I've had that last interview, just to be sure, but.. I'm as sure as I can be that I'll be starting class on the 24th.

Systematic Theology I. Mmmm... I can hardly wait. :) Hope it doesn't screw up my faith even more! ;) Maybe it will help clarify things in my head - give me a system to argue against or something. I think I come to believe something by mentally demolishing the opposite position. What a contrarian! I'll make a good "old codger" when I get to be of a certain age.

Stop that. I know what you're thinking.

So back to Labor Day. I was thinking of all the ways that the word "labor" is used in the Scriptures (which I won't detail for you here, don't worry), from the work a woman goes through in delivering a baby, to work used as punishment when under oppression, to work producing rewards (firstfruits), to companions in work (Paul's "fellow laborers"), to the rest promised to those who have been burdened with work. So many different senses of the word..

And then there's the paradoxical references in Ecclesiastes about the futility of work and the blessing of it. How strange:

"For what has man for all his labor, and for the striving of his heart with which he has toiled under the sun? For all his days are sorrowful, and his work burdensome; even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. Nothing is better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that his soul should enjoy good in his labor. This also, I saw, was from the hand of God." ----- Eccl. 2:22-24

Huh? So, which is it then? Meaningless? Or a gift from God? Or... a meaningless gift from God? Hm.. that doesn't seem right, either. Maybe.. meaningless in and of itself, but.. a good thing when God gives you joy in it?

I don't know. It's confusing.

I've had work that I've found joy in, but seldom. Mostly it's been sorrowful, burdensome, meaningless, vanity, a chasing after the wind. The enjoyment has come when the work fit me well, like a custom-tailored shirt with no pinching or chafing, and when those around me were happy with what I was doing for them and with them. How rare that's been. But, I've seen it - I know it's possible.

So.. this time? Next time? Never again? In retirement? Who knows?

We spend so much time working, that I think Solomon's right: there's nothing better than if your soul can enjoy good in your labor. And I look forward to the next time that happens. It really will seem like a gift from God.