Your Job Is Essential--And So Are You

"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them... If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat."   ... Romans 12:6, 2 Thessalonians 3:10

  "The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” ... 1 Samuel 16:7


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The people shouting, "My job is essential, yours is not!"?  They're destroying confidence, spirit, decades of constancy and the will to keep living.

That barber, that beautician, who's clipped hair 30 or 40 years so to make people look presentable so those folks--

could go to their jobs
and earn money
to feed their families
and provide homes
and an education 
and a sweet, good life for them?

They've worked slow, long hours, decades, using their God-placed skills to serve others. Someday they will die and this is how they'll have spent their years: by serving and helping us.

They cannot just sit behind a computer at home. God gave them the you-must-leave-your-house gifts. 

If they remain home? The world will not spin as God intended for our sakes. He placed gifts in every man, planned it all out, so there'd be no gaping black holes of non-service. In that way, hair dressers are like--


plumbers,
morticians,
house painters,
yard maintenance workers,
farmers,
constructions workers,
butchers,
actors,
chefs,
long haul truckers,
electricians,
school teachers,
auto repairers,
pastors,
restaurant wait staff,
delivery workers,
store clerks,
coffee shop owners, staff
train conductors and staff,
gas station attendants,
warehouse workers,
hotel staff,
daycare workers,
janitors,
flight attendants, pilots,
--and I could do this all day.


To say a person's job is non-essential is to criticize God's perfectly-planned design. And truly? Not until Heaven will we realize the profound effect our gifts had on other people.

Oh, the pride of the man or woman who sits like a king, declaring, "My job matters, yours does not. Stay back! Stand down!" Let all who currently make such judgments beware of this:


"One's pride will bring him low... When pride comes, then comes disgrace. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. The Lord hates:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers."   ... Prov. 29:23, Prov. 11:2, Prov. 16:18, Prov. 6:16-19



We all matter. All jobs are essential. If you are providing food for your family, your job is essential!

The world will limp and stagger without each of us doing the God-chosen job placed within us. And if you haven't realized that fact in all the current chaos of shut-down businesses? I doubt you ever will.

"A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear?"   ... Proverbs 18:14

(Wow, that verse really shook me up this morning!)

The little daily things I need or just love may seem ridiculous to you, but that in no way lessens their importance to my mental health.

"Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys."...   Proverbs. 18:19


Socialism will never work. Never. It's been tried the world over, but it has never prospered as imagined.


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As I stated at Facebook, this is what bravery looks like in our new world.

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Here's how to regrow sweet potatoes. I started mine yesterday!

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And as I also wrote at Facebook:


So with desperate times calling for desperate measures, Tom asked me to trim his hair. Before starting I asked, "Do you want me to cut it like Pastor Ted's brother's wife cut his?" To which Tom promptly replied, "Uhm, NO THANK-YOU!" (See below. heh.)

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Crushing a man's spirit is far too costly. None of us will ever be able to afford it.



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"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." ... Matthew 6:14,15