The First Worker

This evening we’re going to look at a four-letter word, that some of you might consider almost a swear word—it’s W-O-R-K. Work.

If I went around the room tonight, probably every adult could share a horror story about a bad job, bad boss, bad coworkers, a bad work experience

Illus: Workers at the Carlsberg Brewery in Denmark thought they had a terrible work experience. So bad, they decided to go on strike, after losing their prized perk: which was unlimited beer at work. They now have to settle for just 3 free beers at lunch. They were outraged.

One worker told the Wall Street Journal:

"I need a beer every time I take a smoke break."

Illus: A babysitter trying get a job on Craigslist said she was well suited for child care. After all, she said she had plenty of experience in "CPR and Choking Children."

You might be tempted to hire her to babysit, but that sounds like a bad work experience.

We could all talk about bad work experiences. The problem is: we don’t usually talk about work in church enough. But we should. Because that’s where you live.

Your job—what you do for a living (as a student or stay-at-home mom or a CEO) is not only central in terms of your time invested, but also in terms of how you view yourself. 

If I meet a stranger for the 1st time. Maybe we’re sitting on an airplane or in a waiting room. What’s one of the first things I’ll ask? “So what do you do? What’s your job? What do you do for work?”

When you read through the obituaries (This is something you do as you get older. Some of you young people are like, “Who does that?” When you get old enough to start recognizing the names.). When you read an obituary, what’s one of the first statements about a person’s life—where did they work? What they did do? What did they achieve at work?

As Americans, we associate our work with our worth, our identity with our industry.