Day 12 - Why Work?

Especially during the economic recession, everyone is willing to work for wages, high or low. Like during a war, people are in need of clothes, food, and other necessities that would usually be thrown away during "normal" times. We can see from this that our mentalities and mindsets revolve around the "outcome" of our jobs - wages. Because we are in hard times, our minds are temporarily switched from "consuming" mode to "conserving" mode. C.S Lewis states in "Why Work?":

"Do you realize how we have had to alter our whole scale of values, now that we are no longer being urged to consume but to conserve? We have been forced back to the social morals of our great-grandparents. When a piece of lingerie costs three precious coupons, we have to consider, not merely its glamour value, but how long it will wear. When fats are rationed, we must not throw away scraps, but jealously use to advantage what it cost so much time and trouble to breed and rear. When paper is scarce we must – or we should – think whether what we have to say is worth saying before writing or printing it. When our life depends on the land, we have to pay in short commons for destroying its fertility by neglect or overcropping. When a haul of herrings takes valuable manpower from the forces, and is gathered in at the peril of men’s lives by bomb and mine and machine gun, we read a new significance into those gloomy words which appear so often in the fishmonger’s shop: NO FISH TODAY….We have had to learn the bitter lesson that in all the world there are only two sources of real wealth: the fruit of the earth and the labor of men; and to estimate work not by the money it brings to the producer, but by the worth of the thing that is made."

As you can see, the last part of this excerpt was in bold format, because it carried the central argument of C.S Lewis' article. Our selfish minds have separated the church from our work, or vocations. But what connection does the church have with our daily work? C.S Lewis makes the connection in the following statement:

"If work is to find its right place in the world, it is the duty of the Church to see to it that the work serves God, and that the worker serves the work."

As workers in this world and of Christ, we cannot focus on the output of our work - we must value the work itself. C.S Lewis states:

"..work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do."

But C.S Lewis argues that today's churches fail to make such connection. C.S Lewis states:

"I am persuaded that the reason why the Churches are in so much difficulty about giving a lead in the economic sphere is because they are trying to fit a Christian standard of economic to a wholly false and pagan understanding of work."

I, myself, would agree. As stated in one of my previous posts, in today's churches (especially among mega-churches), it is a common cliche to publish a "Christian" book showing the "best, effective Christian way to do ______", or "10 Ways to Improve your Christian Life". We struggle too much on the outcomes that benefit US and not our WORK that is meant for GOD.

C.S Lewis gives us a choice. He states:

"The question that I will ask you to consider today is this: When the war is over, are we likely, and do we want, to keep this attitude to work and the results of work? Or are we preparing, and do we want, to go back to our old habits of thought?"