The Beatitude of Hard Work

“Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses, and some don’t turn up at all.”

~Sam Ewin.

We all recognise the importance of working hard, at least at the level of theory. Yet, working hard, even for those who revel in it, isn’t really an attractive proposition in advance, is it?

Hard work is daunting or certainly unattractive; it’s only after we’ve worked hard and achieved much that we can sit back and comfortably reflect over the outcome. No matter how many workload mountains we’ve climbed it seems the vision of hard work coming, if it’s perhaps not daunting, is certainly not exactly attractive.

And yet, some just routinely accept this and “turn up their sleeves” despite any dissonance experienced.

Three Responses - Only One That Works

The only response to work that, indeed, does work, is to roll the sleeves up and, as Nike used to say, “Just do it.”

This is the application of a will that takes no correspondence into account to the contrary. This is the power of the mind manifest to make a hard and fast decision and then just get started.

The latter two examples show their reticence to the activators of work.

Whether it is pride (to “turn up the nose”) or sloth (“don’t turn up at all”) is no difference; the work’s left laying around in abeyance... either someone else will need to do it or it won’t get done.

From a moral perspective, it is easy to see that the way of pride and sloth are straight out of the disobedience of God—a reality any truly spiritual person will want to address and resolve.

Blessed are the Hard Workers, for Theirs are Rewards in Abundance

We only need do a keyword search in a Bible search engine through Proverbs using the words, “diligence,” or “diligent,” and we’ll find plenty of wise sayings about the diligent and their rank opposite, the sluggards.

It is almost needless to say that the hard workers in this life—those who truly attend to the moral reasons for work—will be rewarded, and constantly—both covertly and overtly, and from within and without. Their esteem will follow them and they’ll grow a safe and prosperous reputation because of it.

Blessed are these who roll up their sleeves!

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.