Whether it is toiling in the hot sun all day long, or striving against the bitter cold, most men base their characters upon the work that they perform to provide for their daily needs, and the needs of those they are responsible for. The seemingly endless morning commute, the never-ending board meetings, even removing just a dusting of snow from the sidewalks, snow that would melt on its own as soon as the sun rises, we are a people that need to feel needed. Our self-value is based almost solely on the works that we perform, works that others do are of little consequence to us, for they bring no merit upon us.
This is why so many men fear the word retirement, to these individuals, you may as well call them useless, it matters not that they have toiled for a half century or more in the workplace, it matters not if it was the most menial task, without the continuance of it, they see little value in themselves. This truth lies not only in the men of the planet, but also in women. There was a day not so long ago that the goal of nearly every woman was to bear, raise, and nurture children, without it, their value in their own eyes was less than demeaning, it was the totality of being a failure in this life. Now of course, even for the women who would desire children, the cost of the cares of the world have risen dramatically, and do not think that this was not by intent. Children are one of the main factors that can hold a shaky marriage together, though not always, and it has been Satan’s attempt from the garden to drive whatever wedge he can between what God has created to be together.
If you are either one of these individuals, you need to pay attention here, God could not care less about the kind of work that you do here in this life, whether you hold what man would consider a high position, or if daily you pick-up the trash outside of people’s homes for them, every work that you do outside of the desire to glorify the name of the Lord is as filthy rags to Him, (Isaiah 64:6) He is no respecter of persons. (Romans 2:11) If you are cleaning your house because you realize it is God’s house and not yours, and He would prefer that it be kept tidy, then this will be honored, for although Mary was doing the better thing, Martha’s work was not overlooked. But if the total extent of your service to Christ is getting up five or six days a week and fulfilling your obligations at the factory, even if you are doing it for the glory of God, and you have no other service to Him outside of that, then you have missed the mark completely.
Your children must be raised to fear the Lord, prayer together must be a constant, and not in an undesiring, obligation type of way, the Word of God must be read and discussed together, the world, and everything else outside of that home must be shunned if it is not of Christ. Now you can get up and go to work for fifty plus years and say that you have served a risen Savior. When all those that you work beside each and every day know for a fact that you are a servant of the Most High God, that your entire life has been committed to Christ, that you have set spiritually based and Biblically sound boundaries not only for yourself, but as much as possible with all that would interact with you, then my friend, you can say that, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” (Col. 3:23)
Whatever position you hold on this planet will someday be replaced by someone else, you will be forgotten, every work that you have accomplished will be a part of a soon to be long forgotten past, the sooner you admit this to yourself, the sooner you can get over this nonsense of feeling bad about it. Even if your name and deeds holds a place in the most esteemed history books and long used teaching manuals, that also in time will pass, history has proven this over and over again. You and everything you did in this life will be forgotten by all that remain over time, so stop acting and believing that anything you do outside of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God has any value, it does not.
There is only One you should be concerned with, and that is He who has the ability to write your name in the Book of Life or blot it out, and He is not looking at what you do for your own self-interest, He is not concerned with your job responsibilities for the world, He watches what you are doing for Him, what you are submitting yourself to His will for. If you are a born-again believer, then you know that your retirement from the demands of the world means only one thing, more time to devote to ways of glorifying the Lord. But unless that is something that you have attempted to do all those years that you were out there in the workforce or at home raising a family for Him, you will not find any pleasure in the new job title that you will be assuming, you will instead fear those words, and you will find the last days of your life just as wasted as the first ones.
