The common world view is that a man must work his 40 hours per week and earn his honest wage.
Doesn’t the bible itself say that if a man does not work he shall not eat?
The word we must investigate here is ‘work.’ We take it for granted that we must go to school 12years, varsity 3years, and then ‘find’ a j.o.b (just over broke) to ‘work’ at for the next 40 years before retiring, finally doing all the things you have dreamt of for the last 50 odd years, and then hopefully dying before your RA runs out. Hmmm.
Is ‘work’ 40 years of meaningless, unstimulating process? Or is ‘work’ bringing your purpose, calling, and giftings to others in valuable service? I define ‘work’ as ‘value given’. A sportsman is deemed to have worked for his money, by bringing value to the spectators. An artist brings value to their appreciators. A doctor brings value to their patients. A writer to their readers. A pastor to their congregation. A teacher to their students. A mechanic to their customers. A farmer, a lawyer, an engineer, a shopkeeper, an hostess, a policeman etc etc etc… to their specific customers.
An interesting aside: a beggar, while being ‘paid’ for his time, does not bring value to his beggees: is he therefore working? Ofcourse not! Yet that is what many employees who do not bring value to their employers, or their customers, are doing. They are no more than uniformed beggars.
Here is the principle: Find a way to give more value, rather than receive more pay.
The next issue to explore is who said it had to be a 40hour work week? Certainly not the Bible. Infact, the Bible talks about Results, not hours. And yet our whole conscience system works on hours, not results. Activity is no guarantee of Productivity. Be honest, most of us can do what we do in half the time, yet it is our fear of being judged ‘lazy’ or ‘un-committed’ that leads us to conform to the ‘hours, not results’ approach of everyone around us.
This brings me to my main point today: Automation.
The first indication of this is in Genesis where God tells Adam to “be fruitful and MULTIPLY…” So the reason for our work should be to multiply who God has made us to be, into the lives of others through bringing our value.
Since their is only one of me, I have to find a way of bringing value at multiple levels.
Proverbs 24v4 says “a man of knowledge increaseth strength.” A good biblical picture of automation is the use of an ox to plough the feilds, thus freeing up 20 men to go and do what they are called to (instead of mindlessly hoing a field 12 hours a day, they can take up architecture, science, building, art, medicine etc etc…).
Socialists and Unionists will take objection to what I have just said, but they have their own blogs to argue on, so butt out.
Another biblical example is the use of the written word to propogate information through many nations and over many years, rather than having to arrange a speaking tour, or God having to have a Demascus road conversion with a new Paul every 40 years or so.
So the biblical principle here is to find a way of accomplishing more meaningful and lasting results (effectiveness) with less time and energy (efficiency).
My last point for the day: Did you know that money, is a store of your Time and Freedom? Which means that when you exchange your time, and freedom of choice, to work for someone else, they pay you in money, which is a return of that time, and freedom.
If you are working for $20 an hour, and you buy something for $20, do you see what you’ve exchanged? Here’s a good question for us, is how we are spending our time and freedom fulfilling our life’s purpose?
A man serves God, and His Life’s Purpose, or he serves money.
If you would do what you are doing now for no pay, you’ve probably found your Life’s Purpose, now get so darn good at it, and serve as many people as possible with it, and you won’t worry about taking care of your financial needs (read Luke 12v16-48).
However if we are at a job where if they stopped paying us, we’d stop going; then we are serving the money that it pays! Robert Kiyosaki says ‘never take a job for what you’ll earn, but rather for what you’ll learn.” Awesome, I’d like to go one step further and say find work where you’d be happy not to earn, and you’ll probably be so good at it that you’ll learn and earn more than expected.
Now take that value that you are giving, and find a way to multiply it, a way to make it serve more people, in a better way. Ask the hard questions of your life, cut the crap, and focus on pursuing your calling for more meaningful results.
Focus on your mission in this one life.
Excellent insight!