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My journey this week takes me to Labor Day, which I associate with working and getting tired.
I greatly respect all working persons. My favorite story came from Jesse Mendoza, a born-again Christian and Spanish-speaker who experienced planting and picking fruit and vegetables while growing up. He talked about how one gets tired just thinking about doing a job that is never changing and constant. The Mendoza family presently lives near Ft. Drum, New York. Jesse Mendoza has written a book, "My Journey," about his life. In it, he explained the work ethic the best I’ve ever read:
“My fondest memories are learning to drive a stick shift and working in the fields, or as I was taught to say it, ‘La lavor.’ Funny how I can remember crying because I wanted so much to do what I was shown by my peers… to embrace labor and without shame, you know? The ‘Old School’ way of life; the original upbringing for my culture in those days. We worked in the ‘papa’ (potato) fields... the ‘limpia’ (cleaning of fields) and the ‘planteo’ (planting). Afterwards came the harvesting of course."'
“My favorite was ‘planteo’ of the ‘la cebolla’ (onion). It consisted of workers going up one side of a plowed row in a field and coming back down the other side of a row, planting the onion. I would have a burlap sack with onions bundles bound together with a rubber band. The burlap sack would only be halfway filled for me though, because it was heavy; if it had been filled all the way I would have been too little to drag it. It was tied around my waist so if I had too much in my sack it would have left a red mark on me and my pops wasn’t having that! I was so spoiled. I remember I wanted so bad to be able to do what all the guys did…For these were my heroes…and I wanted to be like them; exactly like them, no questions asked. I wanted to show them that I could do what they were doing! I would do anything for their respect, if you only knew. Working hard was the thing in my early days …I know. I wanted to make them proud of me. I don’t remember why I felt I needed or wanted this so much, I just did!
"As I got older, my pops would always tell me that he didn’t want any friends around that didn’t like or know how to work. My pops would make them leave our home and then yell at me for hanging out with them. Now I know why. Thanks pops! Weeding out the lazy friends was what my pops taught me. And he was right. The ‘lazy’ ones eventually became drug dealers or in-and-out of prison most of their adult lives. I used the same approach with my children’s friends…somewhat. I learned that success is the greatest revenge a person can ever obtain…and without violence. Amen.”
Mendoza’s pops would have agreed with this scripture concerning the work ethic:
"The sluggard’s craving will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.”
Proverbs 21:25 (NIV)
On work, Paul writes:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works (what I do), so that no one can boast.”
Ephesians 2:8(NIV)
We became believers through God’s unmerited love and grace by the blood of Jesus; we cannot work our way to heaven. Good works are the result of our gratitude for his love and reverence for his lordship.
