Is that all there is?

      From time to time the word work seems like a four letter work punctuated by the letter K!  It seems hardly one day ends and you are waking for the next assault of activity all geared towards a paycheck that probably will not meet all the demands and desires before you. It seems like a rather dreary existence. You are reminded of that song by Peggy Lee, Is that all there is?  It's no wonder then in that kind of spiritual void where we ache for human feedback, love and companionship, we seek the Friday night gathering hole, the cocktail hours and weekend parties. 

       But that is not "all there is" for any of us. If you lay your life as a working automaton out on the table, there are several real and practical problems.  First of all we are not automatons but human beings. We are not meant to work only to find a weekend release of love. That kind of existence almost denies our very nature. We are meant to live and love 24/7/365. We must learn to live as we work. Pay attention, be more than a robot yearning for a paycheck. If we gain salvation it is not at the end of week but all during the week.

        Of course there are other issues on the table too.  When we work like automatons, we begin to perform duties for things. There will never be enough money for all the things we think we need, want or things we are convinced will bring us happiness.  If we live for the material, the flesh, we will never be happy. It denies our basic existence as loving, caring beings.

         I once had a very wise supervisor. She noted that the more hectic it got at work, the slower you should go.  That might seem like a typical state worker response. However, for one thing, in our line of work mistakes were often irrevocable and often had deadly consequences.  On that level, going slower was the wisest of decisions. There is another layer to that advice though. We must not work so fast as deny the ability to be present to what we are doing and who we are doing it for. Again, we are not automatons. As humans we are called to love and serve and that means we must always be able to be present to the other. That is a coworker, spouse, patient and even haters. We must learn to slow down enough not to miss the world as it whizzes by. 

     Hard as we might try, we cannot recapture a week of lost love on a Friday night with commiserating friends and coworkers. If we live the lonely existence of mindless living, when the time comes, that will be in fact, 'all there is'.  We are meant for so much more.

Romans 8:12-17

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.