The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is a man who stood in the midst of life. He looks back on a successful career. He set up grand building projects and built a fine reputation. And in his book, which is philosophically tinted, he reflects on employment.

Enjoyable, Challenging, and Inspiring⤒🔗

Employment: people can experience that in quite different ways. And yet, there is one thing that we have in common in our society. Philosopher Alain De Botton wrote a book about employment: Ode to Employment. In this book he shows there is one remarkable characteristic of modern labour, and that is the conviction that employment must make us happy.

This thought is relatively unique. Employment, for the longest time, was seen as a necessary evil, a way to survive. Today, in our Western culture, this is quite different. With us the thought is prevalent, that the way to a meaningful existence goes through the gate of salaried work.

In other words: employment is for us a gigantic motivator. Our job defines our identity. It is not for nothing that this is one of the first things we want to know about someone else: what are you doing in your daily life? Our job “promises” us a lot: status, freedom, self-development, inspiration, money, etcetera.

Then there is a second line added to this, and this is quite recent. It is the idea that there is plenty of choice. And that accounts for the fact that we say fully convinced: my job must be enjoyable, challenging, and inspiring. This is the reason why people are always occupied with the question: what is my next step; am I in the right place here; am I able to use my full potential here? The question arises what all of this does to us, deep inside. The requirement, that our work must be challenging, stimulating and enjoyable, what does all that do to us?

What Do You Mean?←⤒🔗

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is not so much into our “ode to employment”. Let me quote some texts here: “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun” (Ecc. 2:18). “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun” (Ecc. 1:3)? “All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied” (Ecc. 6:7). Work, according to the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, is toiling, wearing yourself out, and a striving after wind. What do you mean, with enjoyable, challenging, and inspiring?

What do you think of this? I notice in myself that I want to rebel. Do you know what I find so irritating? I have not been able to see just once that the Preacher in Ecclesiastes said something positive about work! And that bothers me. It cannot be right. Does employment not have a nice and a meaningful side to it? Is employment not honourable and valuable? And yet, this is not what this thinker emphasizes. And we do well to pay attention to what he says. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is sharp. He is someone who dares to ask questions. In doing that, he is extremely honest. Also when it starts to hurt. In his book he reveals what our “ode to employment” really means. He comes with two revelations (to unmask the ode to employment).

Revelation 1: The Relationship Between Work and Oppression←⤒🔗

He writes in Ecclesiastes 4:1, “Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them.” Slavery enters the picture here. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes is rooted in Jewish tradition. And his people understand what oppression means. In Egypt they were treated as slaves for 400 years. Day and night — and no days off or a vacation. People became machines. Today it is no different. In large parts of the world there is an enormous amount of suffering in the workforce. Think only of the child labour market. Even just to google “child labour” makes you drown in a morass of misery.

But it is also present closer to home. Let us stretch the concept of “slavery” somewhat. How many people in our society do not get burned out in their work? High targets, ever climbing goals to achieve. Always having to manage your numbers.

One of the biggest questions, which many people wrestle with, is the relationship between work and your private life. You look for a balance between the two. Your boss demands a lot, but so does your family at home. And then you still have other obligations: friends, sport, hobbies etc.

High 20’s, early 30’s and highly educated seems to be the recipe for disaster. Work can eat away at you, the stress, the high demands and expectations, the fast pace. Your work becomes like a great dictator who oppresses you and slowly tires you out. At night you cannot sleep because of this. Think only of the big chance nowadays of  burnout. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes did not know about that yet. But he does show the oppressive aspect of work. Think about this for yourself for a minute: how is my work affecting me at the moment?

Revelation 2: Working Very Hard←⤒🔗

Today, what are our synonyms for work? What kind of descriptions do you read in ads for employment? Often terms like “challenge”, “career”, “career development” and “challenging function” are being used.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes uses entirely different language: “toiling under the sun”, “work is a vexation” and “a striving after wind”. Often, work is just persisting, grinding through it, with no end in sight. Often, work is not challenging at all and it is not inspiring. Life is a composite of things which have become stale. Often, employment is just a job, love knows about ruts, and for success you must work extremely hard.

An average workday can look like this: you get up early, you wash the kids, in between all that is hectic you have breakfast in peace, then take the kids to school, stuck in stop-and-go traffic, and you arrive at your work exhausted, you catch your breath from the busy-ness at home, and enjoy your first cup of coffee, your desk full with paperwork, stacks of files, fighting with a system which does not work well, you do things which are urgent but not important, your agenda is full, long meetings, and then back home again, quickly cook supper, eat supper, put the kids to bed, and at 9pm you land on the couch, or if you are lucky, attend a challenging church council meeting. Week in, week out. And then, finally two weeks of vacation, phew…    What do you mean, an enjoyable, challenging, and inspiring life? On top of that, you became a care worker to do meaningful work. But what do you encounter in your work? You cannot even have a meaningful conversation with a patient. There is no time for that, for everything is about money! Or you were working on preserving a piece of cultural heritage, and the money-tap is slowly being closed. It is toiling away and a striving after wind!

Period!←⤒🔗

I understand what the Preacher says. But where does he want to go with this? Does he want us to just stop working then? To not be ambitious and leave things the way they are? No, that cannot be the Preacher’s intention. In Ecclesiastes 4:5 he says: “The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.” The Preacher calls us to not be a fool, but to take on what you find on your plate. For he did the very same thing.

What does he want then? He wants you to dwell on the pain! That you really feel that life is painful! I notice in myself that I am very good to avoid the pain. I am very quick to think about what I can do to make my work more pleasant, how I can find a better balance, which tasks I can possibly leave out of my schedule. The Preacher reminds me to not look for all kind of solutions, but to first of all accept that this is life. Life is simply full and busy. Your boss has unreasonable expectations from you. To be without a job hurts a tremendous amount. Your job often is disappointing. It is never 100% satisfactory. It fills your stomach, but it does not fill up what you desire life to be. Period!

Rest←⤒🔗

Is this all that this thinker has to offer? No, not quite, fortunately. When you have arrived at that point, then he does offer something more. He says: “Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind” (Ecc. 4:6). The Preaches introduces us to the aspect of rest. Rest is an important Biblical theme. Let us go to Genesis 1, the creation of heaven and earth. God, the LORD creates man on day 6. Man gets the task to till the earth. Man is created as a worker. But it is not the sixth day which is the pinnacle of God’s creation. That is the seventh day, the day on which God rested from all his work.

It is remarkable, that the first complete day for man in this world is not a workday, but a day of rest, namely the seventh day. The first thing which man did here in this world, is: rest, to be completely inefficient. This seventh day of creation, this day of rest totally puts our work into perspective. This day of rest helps you to not completely engulf yourself in your work. To rest prevents you from making work your only goal and purpose in life. To rest is tremendously important for a healthy spirituality of work. First rest, then work. We ought to learn to work, starting from rest.

The Spirituality of Rest←⤒🔗

How can you shape this in your life? By very simply and regularly just laying down your work—completely! Can you be serious about this? We are people, we are not machines. If you are unable to rest by laying down your work completely, then you simply deny that you are human!

But there is still another layer (underneath). Resting for the first man on that seventh day was resting with God! That is actually much nicer. Work makes us more human, we are workers. But what we are above all else, is man before God’s face. John Stott writes: “In that blessed hour of rest, man looks up at his Creator.” Work makes us more man but resting with God makes us completely man. Who you are, is not determined in relation to the world or to your work, but it is determined in relation to your Creator. That seems crucial to me.

Work promises us a lot. Work determines our identity. Genesis puts this thesis into perspective. Your identity is not found in your work!

The glorious thing is that God in Christ does not call you by your function or your title. He knows you by your name! That is very personal. Who you are, is found in him. He is the foundation underneath your life. To be (wo)man in this busy and idiotic world is to practise keeping the rest. Above everything else, resting in the love and faithfulness of God.