Work is a Beautiful Thing

Call me crazy, but I like to work.  I especially like to work hard outside.  Maybe it's because I work a white collar office job Monday - Friday.  Maybe because I love the outdoors.  Maybe because when you put in a good day's work, you feel good about what you've done and you definitely sleep better at night.

To underscore the topic of WORK, I stumbled across an incredible ad the other day.  t is narrated by Mike Rowe.  You know Mike.  He's the host of the show Dirty Jobs. We watch him in that show travel across America spending time with people who do Dirty Jobs.  One program will find him in a septic tank scrubbing down walls or hand fishing for catfish in a muddy riverbank or at a worm farm handling millions of the slimy creatures.

Mike has teamed up with an advertiser to bring us the following ad.  Click the arrow to view the 1 minute video and then come back and let's talk.

I LOVED that ad.  First, it was just doggone optimistic.  Americans need something to be positive about right now.  The spot starts off with ominous music amidst a dull, colorless backdrop and sad narration.  You see hulking equipment and brown fields and warehouses all empty, quiet, and vacant.  It makes you sad, really, especially when he says, "I was mighty!"  What happened?

Then at about the 0.27 second mark, he says I'm still here.  The switch is thrown and he says, "I will rise again!"  Man, this is like a pep talk at half time when your team is down by a few touchdowns.  You hear something like this and you're ready to run through walls!

The ad is by Wal Mart, as you know by now, and that really surprised me.  I'm going to be honest now and tell you that I don't like going into Wal Mart.  I don't like them because they replaced the mom & pop stores across America with big warehouse stores with no character.  I don't like them because of all the people in the stores.  I don't like them because they have 35 checkout lanes and only 3 or 4 will be open at any given time.  I don't like them because part of the formula for their success is cheap goods manufactured in foreign lands.

However, I want to give credit where credit is due.  They are pledging $250 Billion dollars (that's billion - with a B) to source goods manufactured in the good old US of A and they think that will create 1 million new manufacturing jobs across our fruited plain.  If they can do that, my hat's off to them.  Americans need to get back to work. If you're not working for whatever reason, you become dependent.

I don't know about you, but I don't like to be dependent on anyone.  Dependency, to me, creates a debt that must be repaid, because we're all here together and should all be pulling the wagon, if physically able.  I don't want to owe anyone anything.  I'd rather be a giver instead of a taker.  Romans 13:8 tells us to "owe no man but to love him."  I think that being dependent upon the government or your neighbor or the taxpayer or your parents for any considerable period of time is a burden - an inner battle that eats away at you because work is what we were intended to do by our Creator.

I agree with Mike Rowe that work is a beautiful thing.  In fact, so does God:

Genesis 2:15

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

From an agricultural perspective, yesterday was the first day of Spring.  It is time to get in the garden and get your hands dirty and work.  Putting in work planting a crop and later harvesting it, cooking it, and serving healthy meals to your family that you grew by toil and sweat is a labor of love - and that WORK is a beautiful thing!