The Importance of Work

The High Priest quorum leaders have been asked to talk about work.  Maybe that is because for some of us who are getting a bit older  it is easy to want to sit back an take life a little easier and let someone else do the heavy lifting.   We can retire from our employment, but we can never retire from our Church work.

Genesis 3:17-19.  This verse tells us that “Cursed is the ground .. in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ...sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.”  It is true that sometimes work can seem like a curse, but if we look back to verse 17 it says “cursed is the ground for thy sake.”  In other words having to work is not a punishment from God, but instead provides us an opportunity to progress.

There is a talk in the December 2009 Ensign (pages 42-46)  by Bishop H. David Burton that is excellent on the need for work.  I would like to read a few quotes from that article.

"Today, many have forgotten the value of work. Some falsely believe that the highest goal in life is to achieve a condition in which one no longer needs to work. President David O. McKay (1873–1970) was fond of saying, “Let us realize that the privilege to work is a gift, that power to work is a blessing, that love of work is success."

"Work is not a matter of economic need alone; it is a spiritual necessity. Our Father in Heaven works to bring about our salvation and exaltation (see Moses 1:39). And, beginning with Adam, He has commanded us to work."

He goes on to say:

“One of parents’ most important responsibilities is to teach their children to work. Even young children can begin to experience the benefits of working when they are involved in household chores and in service to others. Wise parents will work alongside their children, will provide frequent praise, and will make sure no task is overwhelming."

I expect that most of you had a fathers like mine that told you that work was good for you.  When I was younger I wasn't so sure about that, but now I see the wisdom of it.  As we grow older the things our parents worked to teach us make a lot more sense.

In the Book of Mormon when the people were righteous they were industrious (see for example Alma 23:18.)  When the Lamanites were converted by the preaching of Ammon and his brothers they completely changed.  They became a righteous people and also became a very industrious people.  

When we think of work the physical work first comes to mind, working in the yard work, fixing the house, etc. However, many of us spend more time with other kinds of work.  In addition to our employment we have Church work.  When I searched on the Church's web sites for ideas about work, the majority of the articles I found were for other than physical work.  There is missionary work, genealogy work, temple work to just name a few.   All these types of works have things in common.  It involves  putting forth effort to make something happen.  When we think of pushing a big rock up a hill we know it is going to take hard effort.  However, think of missionary work and working with someone to changes a bad habit.  That will also take a significant amount of effort to help someone rise above there present position to a new level of possibility.

Doing what is easy seems nice.  Just sitting back and letting someone else do the heavy lifting is convenient, but that is not Lords plan for us.  He wants us to progress and make a difference in the world.  To get out and do things, develop our talents, set and achieve goal.  In fact I think it is safe to say that the Lord's plans for us are much more ambitious than the plans we set for ourselves.   All of these things take work.

Often we don't know the reason why we need to do a particular work.  A story from Dierter F. Uchtdorf childhood illustrates this principle.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “See the End from the Beginning,” Ensign, May 2006, 42–45:

“Allow me to share with you an experience from my own boyhood. When I was 11 years old, my family had to leave East Germany and begin a new life in West Germany overnight. Until my father could get back into his original profession as a government employee, my parents operated a small laundry business in our little town. I became the laundry delivery boy. To be able to do that effectively, I needed a bicycle to pull the heavy laundry cart. I had always dreamed of owning a nice, sleek, shiny, sporty red bicycle. But there had never been enough money to fulfill this dream. What I got instead was a heavy, ugly, black, sturdy workhorse of a bicycle. I delivered laundry on that bike before and after school for quite a few years. Most of the time, I was not overly excited about the bike, the cart, or my job. Sometimes the cart seemed so heavy and the work so tiring that I thought my lungs would burst, and I often had to stop to catch my breath. Nevertheless, I did my part because I knew we desperately needed the income as a family, and it was my way to contribute."

…

“Many years later, when I was about to be drafted into the military, I decided to volunteer instead and join the Air Force to become a pilot. I loved flying and thought being a pilot would be my thing."

“To be accepted for the program I had to pass a number of tests, including a strict physical exam. The doctors were slightly concerned by the results and did some additional medical tests. Then they announced, “You have scars on your lung which are an indication of a lung disease in your early teenage years, but obviously you are fine now.” The doctors wondered what kind of treatment I had gone through to heal the disease. Until the day of that examination I had never known that I had any kind of lung disease. Then it became clear to me that my regular exercise in fresh air as a laundry boy had been a key factor in my healing from this illness. Without the extra effort of pedaling that heavy bicycle day in and day out, pulling the laundry cart up and down the streets of our town, I might never have become a jet fighter pilot and later a 747 airline captain."

As a boy Dieter did not know the full reason he needed to pedal his old bike up the hills pulling the heavy laundry cart.  He did know that his family needed him. But he certainly had no idea how struggling up the hills was helping him to achieve his dream of flying.  It is the same for us, we often don't know the reason we should do a particular task or Church work, other than it is our duty.

The world changes, but the need for work will always be there.  We live in a world were it is easy to just become a spectator.  Most of the material things we enjoy were produced by someone else.  We let someone else produce our music.  The sport we are involved in is to watch someone else do it.  At our employment it is also easy to just sit back and let someone else take the lead.  In our Church calling it is easy to rationalize that our calling is not so important that we need to put a lot of effort into it. We need to remember that the Lord expects us all to do our part to the best of our ability.  Work is still a commandment!  

In the world of sports the consequences of work (or the lack there of) is  more immediate than in other areas.  Watching a great athlete on TV doesn't do much to increase our athletic ability.  That only comes through hard work and practice. It is true that some people have more talent in a given areas than others, but no one, no matter how talented, goes very far without hard work. Also I have noticed that in life often the people who have to work extra hard go further than the people with greater natural talents because they learn to work.

Here is a parable from the world of physics (quantum mechanics in particular).  When I was in college I had more trouble getting through my quantum mechanics classes than other areas of physics, but after graduating I have used it more than most classes. Atoms or molecules have different energy states with the lowest state being called the ground state. A molecule in the ground state has a minimum of motion. In order for a parable to be useful, it need to be possible to relate it to our lives.  The analogy for the ground state is obvious  it is the “couch potato”  The largest motion is clicking the remote on the TV or reaching for another snack. Atoms do many interesting things such as give of light, conduct heat, or react chemically with other atoms. Fire is an example of a chemical reaction.  However, they don't do any of these exciting things and remain in the ground state.  In the analogy there are many wonderful things we can do and become, but they won't happen if we stay in our “couch potato” state.  There are a number of way that an atom can get out of the ground state. They can absorb light or collide with an other atom that has more energy.  In our analogy we can be lifted from “our ground state” by absorbing light and truth from the gospel or sometime we need a little push from those who are on a higher plane.  There is one important difference between us and the atoms.  That is (as far as we know) the individual atoms have no choice in which atoms stay in the ground state and which ones move to a higher energy state.  But with us we make the choice to stay in our ground state or make something more of our life.

I would like to close by bearing my testimony that the Lord wants us to develop our talents and becoming all that we can be. That will only be possible through hard work.