Work Songs
Discovering meaning in work is integral to our journey. The daily chores, deliberations, creations, collaborations, and pressures of work can feel mundane or hard. Through it all our time is being spent, and quietly we wonder about being fulfilled, living a life of meaning, and quality experience. Thinking through this one morning, I was captivated with a song by Porter’s Gate. It described how human salvation was accomplished by wood and nails in the hands of carpenter. As we drove into church, I made my children be quiet and restarted the song so that I could share the lyrics with my wife. Here are some of those lyrics:
O humble carpenter, down on Your hands and knees look on Your handiwork and build a house so You may dwell in me
The work was done with nothing but wood and nails in Your scar-borne hands
O show me how to work and praise Trusting that I am Your instrument
O loving laborer with the sweat upon Your face Oh, build a table that I may join You in the Father's place.
The work was done with nothing but wood and nails in Your scar-borne hand.
The kingdom's come and built upon wood and nails gripped with joyfulness
So send me out, within Your ways knowing that the task is finished
The dead will rise and give You praise wood and nails will not hold them down
These wooden tombs, we'll break them soon and fashion them into flower beds
The curse is done, the battle won Swords bent down into plowshare
Your scar-borne hands, we'll join with them serving at the table You've prepared. O humble carpenter
Half an hour later at the morning service, a young man came to the stage. He wanted to share something he had written. He explained that he was a construction worker. That week, standing inside the newly framed house, he became amazed at how in the same way he was building a house, God was working to build his life. This construction worker then strummed his guitar and sang the song he wrote. Here are some of the lyrics:
You poured the foundation under my feet You crafted the roof over my head You designed everything I see … Oh God. We remain In Your beautiful name We come into your house and sing your praise Summit every peak and shout your name
I was deeply impressed with the aligned timing, confirming this idea of relationship between our work and God’s work. Be challenged to see in the work of your hands the opportunity to conquer your mountain or in the words of the construction worker “Summit every peak and shout Your name”
People have told me they are scared to find meaning and contentment in their work because they don’t want to get stuck. It is as if, by harboring discontentment, they are refusing to settle for the situation in which they find themselves; thinking this dissatisfaction will propel them into a better place. This burdensome idea has no merit. Opportunity springs from contentment. Peace, strength, diligence and creativity all grow in contentment and these are integral to realizing your open door. Moreover, the mindsets we cultivate will compound through our lives. Discovering meaning in today’s work will enable you to realize purpose in your future.
The young construction worker who perceived God in his work discovered fresh opportunity. Soon after he sang his work song, he came into our shop for his morning coffee as was his way. Here he randomly met the CEO of a grading company who perceived a quality in the young man and offered him a job. The door opened in his life to work as a heavy equipment operator. Over the next weeks we talked over his morning coffees as he considered his opportunities. Now he describes loving his new job moving mountains.