The Journey Continues: Labor Day

This week starts with a Monday holiday — Labor Day. I am moved by all the hard work ongoing in San Marcos. As I watch new construction of homes and apartments, see critical road work on Interstate 35 and enjoy the fruits of laborers in restaurants, I see that some things never change… It is hard work and getting tired that keeps America's economy strong.

Sept. 5, 1882, saw the first official Labor Day Parade in New York City. One-hundred thirty-nine years later, there are few parades in our area but plenty of “store-wide sales.”

I can’t speak on automations’ impact or the lack of unions for workers, but I can tell the story of a young couple of hard workers I know well. The dream of home ownership is still just a dream for them. Now, it takes both working hard to make the rent on an apartment and keep one truck running in the driveway. In fact, the woman works two part-time jobs (noon until 12:30 p.m.) at a local retail store and a drive through restaurant located near each other — she literally leaves one job and hops over to the other. Her husband works a manufacturing job on the ‘grave shift’ as a mechanic. They are lovely, caring and Christian friends I respect and pray for daily. You see adults like them everywhere these days.

In their honor, I reprint a statement by R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man: “We meet God the creator as a worker in Genesis 1:1-2:2. God as a worker endows all legitimate work with an intrinsic dignity. Men and women, you must see this in your hearts — YOUR WORK MATTERS TO GOD. Hughes honors the disciplines workers employ: energy, enthusiasm, wholeheartedness, excellence in service and skills. Workmen and women, know others may look only on your material contributions; but God looks on the heart of those hard at work as if they are working for the Lord. (Colossians 3:23-24GNB: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as though you were working for the Lord and not for human beings. Remember that the Lord will give you as a reward what he has kept for his people. For Christ is the real Master you serve.”