For as many years as I can remember, TGIF, was the watch-cry for so many people in the workforce.  From the factory floor to the office tower, it seems everyone worked for the weekend.  This “more” mystery has revealed however thatwork is more than work.  Today most of us would love to say, “TGIM,” Thank God It’s Monday! (Or Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday).  

Work is more than pulling a check and making money so that we can spend it on the weekends, pay off our mortgages, buy that new car, or shiny new thing.  Money is an after affect for something we’ve made, produced, supplied, sold, taught, designed, discovered, etc.  There is something more intrinsic, basic, and fundamental to work.

Work is more than “just a job,” as I often heard expressed.  It is a huge part of our lives. 

We were created and designed to work.  That is who we are.  God created us to work.  As God created man and woman in the garden, His mission to them was to “go and work,” (my paraphrase). Work isn’t everything we are, but certainly a big part of who we are. 

Work is more than work as it connects us to others, contributes to a business or non-profit, brings out our gifts and reveals our strengths. Work allows us serve each other as we discover, create, sell, teach, make, manage, produce, transport, craft, design, construct, and so much more.  

Without work we would be gelatin (substitute brand name). Gelatin doesn’t do anything, it just is, it just sits there.  So many of us feel like gelatin right now.  Sitting. Waiting. Taking on weight. Inactive.

Work makes us come alive! Doing work helps us feel significant, substantial, active, involved, important, contributing, earning, and worthy.  Worthy of income and the value that brings to our lives. Worthy in the sense that we can appreciate and enjoy what we’ve done.  

One of the greatest rewards in life is to see the results of what we worked for.  The electrician can look with appreciation at the energy he supplied to light a room or heat to a building.  The nanny can find joy in the investment she made on the children’s lives she cared for.  A grocery store manager can find satisfaction in that fact that he has contributed to supplying the most important ingredient to life: food, while at the same time leading a group of employees to making their contribution.  A director of a cafeteria can be heartened in the fact that he is supplying a menu of foods people can enjoy, savor, and be delighted in.  A salesman can know that what he has brought to a business or individual is something they will use, value, appreciate, and enjoy.  A retail manager can feel satisfaction in the fact that she is leading a team of associates, helping them become people of significance while providing wonderfully crafted products to customers. 

As you can see, work is clearly more than work! Let TGIM be new catchphrase from now on.