Love your job?

I enjoyed this recent post by our dear friend and sister Queen B.

My husband and I spend a good amount of time discussing how much someone working outside the home should expect to love his/her work. I’d imagine most wives consider this question, as we encourage our husbands through the cycle of excitement and tedium of professional life. We’ve all encountered the individuals who profess repeatedly, “Man, I love my job. I just wish everyone loved their job as much as I do. I’m so sad for the people who don’t have a job they absolutely love.”

I haven’t figured out the answer, but I think yearning to find “the job I love” like the gold at the end of the rainbow can be an unfortunate and misguided offspring of the American mentality that our self-actualization and ultimate fulfillment are found in our jobs. This attitude breeds discontentment and restlessness, at least among the vast majority of the workforce. Often work is just work. And just as we find dignity and fulfillment in a job well done, it’s also our burden since Eden. The quotation from St. Josemaria at the end of Queen B’s post puts it so well. Do the work God has given you to the best of your abilities, patiently and diligently, using your skills and gifts and virtues, as an offering to Our Lord. We may not be as slap-happy as larks every day in the office or hospital or lab or classroom, but we will find joy.