Find meaning in your work

One of my mentors defines character as, “who you are when no one’s looking.”

Another mentor says “what you think about in your free time is a huge indicator of who you are.”

I have a slight variation to their thoughts. I believe that what you do for free reveals much about you.

Our culture evaluates almost every action by how much it pays. It’s a lousy system.

One of the most favourite people from my past is a young man named George. George was both physically and mentally challenged. I met him as a university student working part-time in a grocery store. Against all union, company and government policies, George’s parents and our store manager had an under the table arrangement that resulted in George coming to work almost every day for two or three hours. The boss gave him a buck or two an hour, out of his own pocket.

We all loved George, and on those few occasions when his challenges got him in trouble, we defended him fiercely.

He’d show up at work smiling, hair slicked back, face scrubbed, wearing a starched white shirt and black bow-tie. His job was to push shopping buggies from the lot into the store. He did it meticulously, one buggy at a time. I never, ever saw him push two, just one at a time.

Whenever we could, we would get George to work in our departments. I’d have him stack apples and just like the buggies, he’d stack them one at a time, using both hands. It would take him a whole hour to empty one box.

Years later it struck me that George never did realize he was working for money. One dollar or two made no difference to him. It wasn’t about money; it was about doing something productive.

He’d beam with pride when he’d build a stack of apples. He’d stand at the door looking out at the parking lot and tell every customer who came in, “Not one, there’s not one buggy out there.”

I suspect we all need a little bit of George in us. There’s no denying that money is a necessary part of life, needed for survival. But what we need even more is a sense of pride. We need to create, to produce, to do something meaningful.

Far too many of us grew up in a system where as children we were paid for doing chores. Twenty years later, we still in the same system, the only difference is the amount. When one only works for the money, it makes sense that as soon as you have a big enough pile of nickels, you quit. Unfortunately, many have found that when they do, something inside of them dies.

God works. You can’t get past the opening verse of the Bible without discovering that. And it’s a safe conclusion that He doesn’t need the money. Work must be about more than paying rent.

I am grateful we are living in an age in which people are discovering joy in their work. Increasingly, young people are looking beyond posted salaries and are asking themselves, “How do I really want to invest my one and only life?”

Increasingly middle-aged people are finding the courage to make vocational changes, embracing work that pays less but means more.

Increasingly retired folks are choosing to work, not for salaries, but to make a difference in their communities.

I believe it is a great day when we discover, like my friend George that it is not about the nickels. It’s about expressing who we’ve been created to be.

If you want a really great experience, do something for free this week. You might find it more liberating than you ever thought.

Tim Schroeder is a pastor at Trinity Baptist Church.