Adam McLane

Hard work or working hard?

We all work hard.

I can’t think of the last time I met a pastor who was truly lazy.

Instead, what I most often see, and what took me years to get past…

I have a tendency to replace hard work with working hard.

In other words, if I have some hard work to do in my life, things like:

  • Maybe I know I need to invest in a relationship I don’t want to invest in.
  • Maybe I need to repair a relationship I’ve busted.
  • Maybe I need to make a hard decision that will be unpopular.
  • Maybe I need to turn someone away.
  • Or turn down a proposal.
  • Or walk away from something I love.

In those times, I try real hard to escape the hard work by working real hard.

I can fill my calendar like a champ. I can make myself look really busy. And I can work really, really hard from dawn until way past midnight.

But I think God’s revealed to me that I most often do that when I’m avoiding hard work in my life.

It’s easy to confuse the two because the words are so similar. But one is noble while the other is ignoble.

Question: What are stop-gap measures for this that have worked for you?

Posted

in

by

Adam McLane

Tags:

,

Comments

3 responses to “Hard work or working hard?”

  1. Jerry Bolt Avatar
    Jerry Bolt

    Good thought provoking question.  Thanks.

    To answer:

    1. Stop
    2. Listen
    3. Do  

    Too many times we skip steps 1 & 2.

    Reply
  2. Hilary Avatar
    Hilary

    So true! We’d all rather look good doing something that comes relatively easily than become vulnerable/get hurt doing something that is difficult! And if we’re honest we usually know which one God would rather we were doing…

    Reply
  3. Craig Lomax Avatar
    Craig Lomax

    Ya, its the scapegoat for procrastination. If we stay idle, the dread of  “hard work” will overcome us until we act responsibly. But if we engage at something, anything, fold our socks even, then we escape our conscience until there is no way to escape the dreaded. I imagine that if we prayed about what should be on our task lists while being idle and then actually disciplined ourselves to writing down and doing those things, that might work. 

    Reply

Leave a Reply