Hungry and Willing to Work

I would have made a lousy Tupperware lady, beauty consultant or home decorator. It’s just not for me. I tried one of those things—bought the starter kit, used the product, gifted the product to family and friends, but I didn’t have it in me to sell the product. I didn’t have enough interest or confidence to maintain the discipline required to sell. Some would say that I simply wasn’t hungry enough to be successful.

However, I stumbled into a part-time career rather late in life, after I retired from nursing. I’ve become a writer.

There is still some pressure to sell, but I would write if not a penny of profit could be made. Writing isn’t like those other things in that once you have the starter kit you are “good to go.” There is studying the craft, lots of trial, error, critique and rejection. And for what seems like the longest time, any cash that flows in goes out to the next writer’s conference, paying an editor or purchasing books and seminars about how to market what I’ve produced.

It’s years, not weeks, before most writers see a paycheck.

Without a steady and healthy income, what is it then that motivates me to write? Future financial reward is tempting, but not promised. What is it that motivates you to work? Wouldn’t we all love to say that our work is 100% an act of obedience to Jesus Christ our Lord?

We were created to work. Built and fitted for a particular work without a specifically understood retirement plan! We are told, in fact, that the work can be hard. Jesus, the Son of God worked. It says in Acts 10:38 that “Jesus went about doing good.” Riding to work on a donkey and being greeted with smiles and cheering wasn’t part of his daily routine. He was on his feet most days and He dealt with some ugly situations and worked with some unruly and unreliable characters. Jesus put aside His status as God to labor as a common man.

Jesus followed one of His own commandments: “You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:9-10, CSB).

Jesus experienced such things as urgency and absolute deadlines when He took on the nature of us humans. He had three years to accomplish what He was sent to do. His work on earth changed the world. It was a necessary work, life-bleeding labor . . . something that could not be delegated or delayed. My well-being—my life and yours depended on the work of Jesus’ hands.

Jesus said of work, “. . . This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:3-5).

A philosopher, thinking he was wise, once said, “I don’t live to work. I work to live.” We know the intent behind the statement. I’ve repeated those words, thinking I was being clever or wise. That was my philosophy during my thirty year nursing career, and don’t forget the four years of education before I earned the title, R.N. A widow, providing for three children, I needed the paycheck, so I worked, but I lived for those days when I could take off the name badge and wear street clothes!

In light of Jesus’ example, where is the wisdom in that philosopher’s statement? Should we actually live to work? Six days a week anyway?

“Idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches.” (Proverbs 10:4).

A lazy hunter doesn’t roast his game, but to a diligent person, his wealth is precious. (Proverbs 12:27).

The slacker buries his hand in the bowl; he is too weary to bring it to his mouth! (Proverbs 26:15).

King Solomon spoke to the idle, the lazy and the slacker in these verses, but what about the diligent worker? The one who works hard to provide for a family? What about the woman like me who enjoys her work most of the time, but also realizes the drudgery of the day to day? Maybe it’s more about who we are working for and what sort of reward are we hungry for.

Paul addressed all sorts of work and workers: “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:23-24).

Jesus said in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Working for prestige, power or only a paycheck is as bad as living for those things.

I’m not a starving artist/writer. I could quit at any time. But I am hungry. Hungry for good words and to do good work. I’m hungry for good stories that tell of the goodness of God. Hungry to display God’s good works through storytelling. Writing is not the only work I am fit to do, and I don’t write to live. Neither do I live to write, but I sense an urgency. A deadline.

Psalm 90:10: “Our lives last seventy years or, if we are strong, eighty years. Even the best of them are struggle and sorrow; indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.” I write because there is no time to be wasted searching for an easier, more interesting or glamorous way to occupy six days a week. God provided me a “starter kit,” and I don’t need to “sell” anything. I only need for my life and my writing to display as many of the wonderful works of God as I can in the years that I have left.

Psalm 90:17 (a few lines down from verse 10): “Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us; establish for us the work of our hands—establish the work of our hands!”

What sort of work has God fitted you for? As a career? As a volunteer? Full-time? Part-time? In a ministry? From your home, in your church or in your community? Could it be a business, a craft or some creative combination of those things? Most importantly, will it give you a platform to display the beauty of the Lord and His good works?

Allow me to suggest an urgency, no matter your age, and that God has already gifted you with a personalized starter kit—not only adequate, but perfect. What is the work God would have you do? Tell someone about it. There are plenty of women hungry to work alongside someone just like you.

Written by Rita Klundt.
Author and speaker, Rita Klundt’s, all-time favorite read is a true and transparent story with an only-God-could’ve-done-that ending. If something happens, good, tragic or funny, Klundt encourages women, not only to tell it, but to write it. Her memoir, “Goliath’s Mountain,” is a poignant and tragic love story that deals with mental illness and suicide. Klundt compiled and published stories from other Christian women, all with ties to Illinois. That award winning book, “Real Life. Real Ladies: Short Stories from the Pew” is about to become the first in a series. Rita and her husband live in Pekin, Illinois. You can find her online on her website and on Facebook. 
You can find more of Rita's posts on the PriorityNow Blog here.