Laboring for the Lord
Colossians 3:17-23
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Rules for Christian Households
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters,[a] not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,..
Yet we work in the marketplace for other men. Before the pandemic everyone was on overdrive, myself included. Go faster, work harder and it was always with less help. It has been apparent for a long while that the workforce has been in burnout.
But life has changed.
"With the slowdown of the pandemic people have had time to realize that working yourself to death, especially for low wages is just not worth it. We also need to make clear the fact the much of corporate America is greed based and few have the best interests of their employees in mind.
In a trend being dubbed as the Great Resignation, the pandemic has triggered an employee exodus that continues today as people quit their jobs in record numbers. In June alone, 3.9 million workers resigned from their jobs nationwide, just down slightly from the record of 4 million set in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, job openings rose by 590,000 to a new high of 10.1 million positions. For employers, the mass resignations amount to a reckoning after decades of barely budging U.S. wage growth in comparison to inflation, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. The change is causing the power dynamic to shift to the side of labor as businesses find themselves scrambling over a pool of workers who are in no hurry to return to their old jobs....Although Genuent’s Wright believes that unemployment benefits are “absolutely” a factor in people’s decision to not go back to work, attributing the problem solely on people abusing the system, is an oversimplification of a larger issue.
For Wright, COVID did not necessarily create the ongoing labor problem. Instead, it accelerated long-running issues within an economy and workforce in transition, whether it be a switch to so-called jobs of tomorrow or changes in work culture.
“In my mind, the labor shortage myth about people not wanting to work is much more about a mismatch in the skill sets employers are looking for and what we as a population can bring to the table,” Wright said. “Looking at the employee base, you also want to make sure you’re creating a work environment where employees feel safe and supported. If employees aren’t satisfied, they’ll just go, ‘You know what? I need a break. Maybe I’ll come back in a year or two.’” from the article: The Great Resignation: Why are employers in Reno, and nation, struggling to find workers?
So now the companies need people to work to make their profits but the workers are not returning. They have learned that there is more to life than work.
besides working and when we do working hard our Lord has designed life to be lived in a rhythm. Work, sabbath rest, work, sabbath rest... Only in a life focused on Christ will we find hope and peace.
"Christians must follow the lead of both biblical texts and the Christians who have come before. These examples will lead Christians to listen to the real experiences of workers struggling with low wages and center them in the solutions to these struggles...The story we tell about workers matters, and Christians can tell a different story. Christians may be familiar with the biblical principle in 1 Timothy that “a worker is worth their wages.” Another way of saying this today, following James 5, might be: “a wage must be worthy of the work.”
Yet, wages are an ever-evolving struggle, and workers desperately need people to show up and stand on their side to demand a living wage. When wages are $8, $10, and $11 an hour, workers aren't worth their wage; they're worth far more." from the article: