Story: Playing on the Job

Derick didn’t feel like working that morning. He wanted to be playing.

So instead of working hard, he played around on the job, trying to get everyone’s attention to get them to play too. He tried to get his coworkers to laugh at jokes. He tried to juggle his hammer as if it were a ball. He lined up the nails in a pattern instead of hammering them into the wood.

Derick’s plan to get attention worked, only not the way he expected. His boss came over and said words Derick never wanted to hear: “You’re fired.”

Derick pleaded and said he hadn’t meant any harm, but it was no use. He’d made choices, and those choices had consequences. With a heavy heart, Derick headed to his car. How would he feed his family with no job? How would he make money to go do fun things?

Derick learned a very important lesson that day—one that he wished he had learned long before. There’s a time to work, and a time to play. And when it’s time to work, we need to do it with all our heart, as if God Himself were our boss.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV)

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.” Ecclesiastes 9:10 (ESV)