From Joan B. MacDonald, from her book ‘The Holiness of Everyday Life’, wrote under the chapter heading, “Work”:
When work and career become our top priority; when our jobs, which already consume so much of our time, also become the focus of all our attention, we are in trouble. Moreover, this is an easy trap to fall into. How do we avoid it? How to strike a balance? The solution is simple to state though difficult to achieve. The solution is to bring a spiritual focus into our everyday lives. I believe we must bring the Savior to work with us.
The Prophet Micha tells us how to go about serving God. He tells us we do not serve God in our temples with our offerings, rituals, or prayers: Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? [Or with perfect sacrament meeting attendance or hundreds of endowments performed?] Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. (Micah 6:6-8)
Where are we to do justly—only at church on Sunday? When are we to love mercy—only when we are home teaching. How can we ever learn to walk humbly with God if we don’t do it every day? Forty hours a week, at work, we must do justly. Forty hours a week, at work we must seek mercy. Forty hours a week we must humbly invite God to walk with us.
Work, whether at home or on the job, provides us with a great opportunity to choose God. If we lived in a monastery and spent our days in scripture study, and prayer, it would all be so easy. That’s not what God asked us to do. He placed us in the world. Work provides the perfect setting to meet that challenge. The very tension work creates, the very attraction to be career-focused, is the very opportunity to choose God and to actively demonstrate the depth of our commitment to serve him above all else. .
Finally, even without character development, exposure to diversity, and helping to define values, work is spirit filled; in fact the process of work glows from within like rocks touched by the finger of God. I firmly believe that everything we do contains an underlying spiritual principle. I wonder about work. What could it be? What spiritual principle underlies and shines through work? Is work about faith? No. Charity? Not usually. Purity? No. Order? Sometimes, not always. Beauty? No. Power? Yes. That’s it, isn’t it. Work requires and calls forth our power to do, to create (both objects and ideas), and to identify and to solve problems, to foresee and evaluate consequences for good or evil, and to make decisions and choices. Are these powers attributes of God? Yes! Do we become more like God when we develop these powers in ourselves and use them for good? Yes! Will we need these powers in the celestial kingdom, where we will create worlds without end? Yes, work is sacred! With the help of the Lord, our work can help sanctify and exalt us. Welcome, welcome, Monday morning. Go work. ~Joan B. MacDonald, The Holiness of Everyday Life’, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1995), 13-15
