The Whole World

Typically I think that hard work is a virtue. We get paid for our labor and therefore can buy the things to survive and the things that make life a little nicer. And it really helps when we enjoy our work. Even Jesus said, "The laborer is worthy his hire."

But what is a healthy balance between working to have our needs and some of our wants met and working for excessive gain? What portion of our lives are we sacrificing to work for gain? We pass this way only once. What have we left undone so that we can work longer hours? Whose life should we have touched? What pond should we have fished in? Where should we have volunteered? What book should we have read? What path should we have walked down?

No, we were too busy working, acquiring gain that one day we will leave behind. We were building a mansion that one day the kids will auction off. We were acquiring things that one day will have no meaning to anyone. But work, work work! We must work ourselves to the bone. We must work until we are mentally and physically tired. All to acquire!

In the end will we hear, "Well done, good and faithful servant?" Will our lives really have reflected what God really intended us to be? Or have we really left the more important matters undone?

Luke 9:25 "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?"