Witnessing Eye for Value Creation

Synopsis     Ruth 1:19-2:7     8/1/2018

Naomi and Ruth returned to Bethlehem. And, they were welcomed. But Naomi expressed her sadness at how things had turned out. She lamented the bitterness of losing her husband and both of her sons.

It was the harvest season. So, Ruth asked Naomi’s permission to glean. She went to work in the fields picking up the grain that the harvesters missed. She worked diligently. And her effort was noticed by the other workers.

She Wanted to Work

Ruth wanted to work. Whether the motivation was to secure her own provision or to bless Naomi, Ruth went to work. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t timid. Ruth was clearly no stranger to hard work.

And this was her dignity. And this was her honor.

Boaz’s workers recognized something different in her. As a result, she was esteemed because of her willingness to work.

An Eye for Value Creation

There is so much debate about work in the post-Christian time. Especially about hard work.

There is this temptation to think that hard physical work is somehow beneath me. And, I know I’m not alone. I see the direction of the world. A tight labor market makes the question ever more pressing. In industry, we find ourselves asking, “Can’t this work be outsourced to another country or else somehow automated?”

Indeed, it’s true. Our mastery of technology and our industry has given us leisure. And leisure is the basis for culture.

But the experience of hard work has this unique ability to bring a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. A lifetime of labor was a part of what defined prior generations. Working with hands. Working with my body. Giving my physical strength to create value for another.

If the sweep of technology ends up taking the possibility of hard work away from my human hands, I will have lost more than I have gained.

“In all labor there is profit, but mere talk tends only to loss” Prov 14:23