Worked To Death

“Miwa Sado, a young journalist for Japan’s state-run broadcaster, spent the summer of 2013 frantically covering two local elections in Tokyo.  Over the course of a month, she clocked 159 hours of overtime. She rarely took weekends off. She worked until midnight nearly every night. On her birthday, June 26, she emailed her parents, who thought she sounded weak.  Not quite a month later, just days after the second election, she died of congestive heart failure. She was 31” (https://www.nytimes.com/

2017/10/05/world/asia/japan-death-overwork.html).

The Japanese even have a word for it.  They call it “karoshi” or death from overwork.  The problem starting attracting attention in the 1980’s as an increasing number of overworked Japanese employees, in varying industries and occupations, were dying from the stress associated with an unreasonable workload.  The competition in the Japanese workforce is tremendous.  The article referenced above went on to say that Ms. Sado “...was a young woman making her way in a blue-chip organization. Her employer is considered one of the most prestigious companies in Japan, a country where exhaustion is often seen as a sign of diligence.  A 2014 government investigation found that Ms. Sado’s death was a direct result of her work life.”

Work, in whatever form it takes in our lives, has an important role to play in our lives.  We are encouraged in the Scriptures to “...do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” (Colossians 3:23).  One way to promote healthy interaction with unbelievers and to provide for our needs is “...to make it our ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands…” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12).

But the Bible never promotes working ourselves to death.  The Sabbath provisions were given, at least in part, to emphasize the need for regular periods of rest and reflection.  Jesus Himself needed and sought times of rest and invited his followers to do the same (Mark 6:31).  Working yourself to death is never a badge of honor.

God loves you!

Mike

Freedom And Obligation

The ideological rifts in our country appear to be getting wider and deeper.  It seems that freedom of expression, in word and deed, is becoming a privilege which we are finding increasingly difficult to handle.  Matt Dabbs offers a reason why this is happening:

“We have emphasized freedom without pairing it with obligation. When you have been set free it comes with a response of obligation to others…the desire for them to also experience the same kind of freedom you have been given. Freedom without obligation is the slave master mentality. I get my way and I have no obligation to you.

Obligation without freedom is slavery. I must do what you say regardless of how I feel about it. One without the other is abusive.

“We are seeing people today expressing extremist positions – neo-nazisim, KKK, you name it. They are exercising their freedom without pairing that freedom with an obligation to their fellow man. You have the freedom to say many things but what you say has repercussions. Freedom does not mean freedom from the consequences of your actions. If what I see on social media is any indication, some seem to be unaware of this.

“We need to uphold our freedom AND understand the obligation to others that comes with it. This has been lost today and it must be reclaimed if we are to have any chance of engaging in a healthy dialog toward a brighter future. The church must lead the way on this” (Matt Dabbs, “Racial Tension and the Need for Freedom and Obligation,” wineskins.org, 8-14-17).

This isn’t a new problem, by the way.  Humans have always had a hard time balancing freedom and obligation.  Both Peter and Paul had to counsel disciples of Christ to exercise their freedom responsibly.  True freedom should never be used to indulge our fleshly desires or as a front for evil practices (1 Peter 2:16; Galatians 5:13).  To do so is an abuse of freedom and puts us in danger of forfeiting it.  And reform starts with us.

God loves you!

Mike

Assumptions

           “Sam and Jacqueline Pritchard started receiving mysterious phone calls to their home in England in the middle of the night. The person on the other end never made a comment. After a long pause, he would hang up. They changed their phone number to stop the harassing night calls. The stalker changed his tactic. He started sending them obscene and threatening anonymous letters in the mail. The couple discovered their house had been daubed with paint, and their tires were slashed. The Pritchards became prisoners of their own home and spent a small fortune on a security system. They had no idea what they had done to deserve such cruel treatment. After four months of unexplained terrorism, they finally met the perpetrator. Mr. Pritchard caught James McGhee, a 53-year-old man, while he was damaging their car. As they looked at each other, Pritchard asked him, “Why are you doing this to us?” The vandal responded, “Oh, no—I’ve got the wrong man!” McGhee thought he was terrorizing a different man, who had been spreading rumors about him. He had looked up Pritchard’s name and address in the telephone directory and assumed he was the person responsible for slandering him. He got the wrong Pritchard. Assumptions make us jump to the wrong conclusions, and others suffer as a result” (Kent Crockett, I Once Was Blind But Now I Squint, p. 71).

          “But I thought…”  How often has that got you in trouble?  Imagine the regret the apostle Paul felt as he considered an assumption he made earlier in his life.  "So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9).  As a younger man, Paul assumed Jesus was an imposter and that his followers were a threat.  And acting upon those assumptions caused incredible suffering for disciples of Christ, including imprisonment and death.

          Jumping to conclusions is a poor exercise program.  No good ever comes from it. Instead, endeavor to take the time to get the facts and hear from all sides.

God loves you!

Mike