Good Day's Work

[Col 3:22-25 KJV] 22 Servants, obey in all things [your] masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: 23 And whatsoever ye do, do [it] heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

While languishing spiritually during the author's early twenties, he was asked if he could help a former high-school classmate's family make a temporary move, His father was a real estate investor, who was building his wife her dream home. He was actually in the process of developing a gated neighbor, at the time. This dream house would sit within those boundaries. However, until that house was built, they would be residing in temporary lodging.

So, the author spent his day moving boxes and making trips between their beautiful old home which was in a part of town called Country Club near the local university and their new quarters. Which were much more modest but only transitional.

At the end of the day, they offered him pay. His response simply was, "Thanks for an honest day's work!" But, they insisted on paying him one hundred and fifty dollars for his time. The author knew the weakness which he was struggling with at time. He had picked up some bad habits being part of the culture of sports and athletics, in particularly, football. And, he knew that that money likely would soon be wasted on pornographic material or young women at one of the area's strip clubs and beer. So, something told him that he simply should not take it. But, being polite, he did. And, his premonition about the foolishness that would arise in his life that evening was not mistaken.

Lesson: Earning money is not always the greatest benefit of work. A good day's work is often all a man needs for recovery. It is therapeutic.

Knowing some of the personal philosophies and staunch conservatism of his classmate's parent, the author eventually wrote an apology letter and returned the one hundred and fifty dollars. He explained why he did not want the money in the first place, how he was afraid that he would waste it, how he eventually did, and what he really needed was just a "good days work".

This resulted in his classmate's father mentoring him and teaching him some aspects of commercial real estate investment. While his classmate's mother tried getting him a great paying position working in business intelligence at a local company. They valued and appreciated his transparency.