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confucius

Last week, because some people were coming to observe our school, a variety of inspirational and character-building signs were posted around the building. These included "Passion" and "Inspiration" as well as quotations from great world thinkers. I generally find such signs ridiculous and irritating: how much character improvement and general inspiration are really going to occur from reading a poster in the hallway?

Quite the opposite has been the case for me. As I walked upstairs to make some copies on Friday, I was accosted by some words attributed to Confucius: "Give a man a job he loves and he will never work a day in his life."

Whatever.

I love my job. I cannot imagine doing anything else vocationally in my life. Even if offered a promotion, I doubt I would take it. I LOVE TEACHING. I love my students; I love my subject matter. But, my job is WORK. Undeniably WORK. Exhausting, draining, and difficult.

I began to think to myself: All these people who believe this maxim: how frustrating must that be? To have the expectation that if you truly love your job, it will never be work. And yet you go to your job that you love everyday and come home feeling exhausted and drained. And totally frustrated with your life because this maxim you believe to be true is not true in your life and so you feel unfulfilled.

So I felt confirmed in my worldview. At least it assures me that my work will be plagued with thorns and difficulty. Yet I have real hope because I know that one day Christ will crush the serpent under his feet and God's blessings will "flow far as the curse is found."

posted by CP @ 8:28 PM 2 thoughts