Work
Monday, June 30th, 2008Some thoughts on work from St. Theophan the Recluse:
We cannot do without work. Idleness is wrong. It is vitally necessary to work at something - this is your duty, an obligation supported by the terrible threat that everyone who does God’s work carelessly will be cursed. Nor must external relationships be severed - they must be properly kept up. There is a popular misconception that if you take up an occupation, you are moving out of the sphere of things spiritual and pleasing to God.
…But this is not so. The everyday tasks and social activities on which the stability of homes and society depend are tasks appointed by God. By performing them you are not running into the realm of the profane, but going about God’s business. The cares and worries which corrode the heart and destroy its peace are the diseases of fallen man, who tries to arrange his own destiny and goes off at a tangent. They disrupt his thoughts and prevent him from concentrating on the matter at hand.