Ponderings on "Why Work?" Number 11

One of the great puzzles to solve in life is to find a
job you can love and that someone will pay you to do.

- Doug Shermand / William Hendricks
in Your Work Matters to God

Sayers' 3rd Propostition is this: "The Worker's first duty is to serve the work."

She follows this startling statement with a discussion on Christ's 1st and 2nd commandment to love with an emphasis...

to remember if we put our neighbor first, we are putting man above

God, and that is what we have been doing ever since we began

to worship humanity and make man the measure of all things.

Some reading this little book might be struck how common her examples are to today's culture. This proves once again Ecclesiates' (1:9) "there's nothing new under the sun." Sayers (page 25) gives the following quote to drive home the negative impact of focusing on community...

"I expect the judicature to understand that the nation does not exist

for their convenience, but that justice exists to serve the nation." - Hitler

(Remember that "Why Work?" was written by Sayers in 1947)

The last 3 pages of this book are probably the most revolutionary of the 27 and I remind the readers of this blog that the book is available free online. In the next post I'll begin wrapping-up this pondering with Sayers' 3 reasons why "serving the community is to falsify the work and the only way to serve the community is to forget the community and serve the work."

To that end....