Work is a four-letter work. Sometimes, work is seen as bad, and it gets in the way of what I really want to do. Other times, work is welcome and is seen as a means to an end. What is the right way to view work?
My first work experience, where I was paid, was working on a tobacco farm. Priming, pulling, hanging, suckering, hoeing – if you are familiar with agricultural terms, you know that’s hard work. My next job was working in ladies’ and children’s shoes in the Belk department store at Hanes Mall (Winston-Salem, NC). Those two are polar opposites, but there’s one thing I learned – a good work ethic.
Over the years, I’ve done different jobs: Retail, fast food, manufacturing, garbage pick-up, construction, education, IT, ministry, etc. My wife likes to ask, “What hasn’t Boomer done?” The truth is that I love to work, and I believe that work is good.
Work is good because good work can provide meaning and purpose. It also has physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual benefits. Work produces the goods and material things we need, and it is vital in the development of a strong social culture. In addition, it provides a way to make a living and is essential in economic matters. Bad things happen when people aren’t working.
Where do we find the origin of work? We find it in the first two chapters of the Bible’s first book: Genesis. Genesis is the book of beginnings, and what we see is eye-opening. God is a worker. He worked for six days, created everything from nothing, and said it was good. How could work be bad if God is doing it? We also see Adam being charged to do good work. He cared for the Garden and the animals and had a high calling or vocation to be a worker. Some think that when Adam and Eve committed the original sin, work was cursed, and from then on, work was bad. The only thing bad about that is bad theology. Work was affected after the original sin because all work would have an element of difficulty going forward. Work was not bad; it was still good, but it would be harder.
What do you believe about your work? Is it good work, and do you find it fulfilling? Do you work just to get a paycheck and have the ability to acquire more stuff? Why do you work, and what is the real purpose of work in your life? I encourage you to think about it. Recently, someone asked me when I was going to retire. I told them I wasn’t planning to retire because God made me to work.
Doing Good at Work educates, equips, and empowers individuals, businesses, organizations, and non-profit leaders to value work. We believe good work is life-giving, so we are committed to helping people discover who they are and how they can find real purpose in and through their work. You can learn more by scheduling a simple conversation. Click HERE to get started. How you see yourself is the first step in becoming a good leader.
Working Together for Good,
Boomer
We encourage you to become a Participant in the Doing Good at Work movement, and we pledge to support and help you DO GOOD. Join the movement today!
Dr. Boomer Brown, Ph.D., is the CEO of Doing Good at Work. Doing Good at Work is a 501(c) 3 organization that functions like a business. We desire to “Make People Better” because we know better people make better businesses, and better businesses make a better world. Learn more: https://doinggoodatwork.com/