Congratulations!
You’ve just won the Megamillions lottery and are now filthy rich!
What do you do with the rest of your life?
If you’re like a lot of people, the very first thing you do—before buying a car,
before giving anything to your family, before even going out for a nice dinner
is quit your job.
Yes, I’m sure you’ve fantasized about it before.
Walking into your boss’s office, dropping your keys on the floor, and uttering those
two oh-so-sweet words: “I quit.”
Depending on your relationship with the boss you may have some other choice words but I’m
trying to keep it clean here.
The point is, without a need for money anymore, the vast majority of people in the world wouldn’t
continue working.
The point of a job is to make money to survive, and if you don’t need money, you don’t
need a job.
Just grab a piña colada and meet me on the beach… where I’ll be hanging out til I die.
I mean, right?
Isn’t that what most people fantasize about?
Isn’t that why people play the lottery, so that they can retire immediately and live
a life of relaxation?—just go on vacation, watch Netflix all day, do things with your
life that you actually want to do.
The reality for most people is that work… is nothing but an existence.
It’s a chore.
It’s something we HAVE to do that we don’t want to do, a punishment for our sins, maybe.
It does say in Genesis that Adam was forced to work by the sweat of his brow because he
ate from the tree, and that’s how most of us view it.
Which, I got to say, as a Catholic… is really depressing to hear.
Our view on work has GOT to change.
Work is not simply a means to an end, a hoop to be jumped through, a punishment to endure
so that we can keep on living.
Work is a means for us to come to full life, to become who we were created to be, to take
part in the incredible mystery of God.
We shouldn’t work to live… we should live to work.
Now, if your understanding of work is nothing more than menial labor that’s uninspiring
and tiresome—punch in, punch out, get a paycheck—this might make no sense to you.
Clearly that can’t be the peak of our existence.
When I say “work,” I’m talking about labor in its ideal sense—activities in which
we use our personality and creativity to produce something meaningful for the world, to improve
the life of others around us.
Work isn’t just about doing something to get paid, it is an opportunity to discover
our gifts and offer them for the sake of the world.
It’s a chance to feel good about earning something for ourselves and our families,
not just receiving a handout.
It is a noble action in which we are allowed to serve our poor brothers and sisters by
not just giving money, but actually sweating for them, putting some effort into improving
their lives.
If you won the lottery, sure, you wouldn’t have to work to survive, but I would argue,
the Catholic Church teaches, in fact, that you would need to work in order to FLOURISH.
Sitting on a beach drinking piña coladas is great, it’s relaxing, and we all need
that sometimes, but it doesn’t bring lasting satisfaction.
After a while, you would begin to waste away, fade into nonexistence.
The mind needs to be stimulated; the soul yearns to produce, to build, to find actualization,
to work.
Unfortunately, so many of us see work as a punishment, a result of sin, but the fact of the matter
is that it is inherent to the created nature of humanity.
Prior to sinning, God entrusted Adam and Eve with dominion over the earth, to be its caretakers.
They were to work the soil, not as a punishment, but as a fulfillment of their reality, to
take part in the work of God.
When I talk about work, I’m talking about a vocation, a call from God to be co-creators
with him, to be partners in the sanctification and redemption of existence, to bring holiness
and worth and meaning to a world that knows nothing of God.
That is not something that winning the lottery frees us from.
That is not something we could ever abandon.
We were created to work, to labor for the Kingdom.
It is not enough to rest on our laurels, to see that we are content with the barn we’ve
filled for ourselves and so relax until we die.
This is about a calling from God to take part in what he is accomplishing.
Now, I know what you’re thinking.
“That’s all well and good father.
I’d love to do something meaningful like that, but that’s not life.
I gotta pay the bills, and what pays the bills is boring and unfulfilling.
We can’t all just quit our day jobs spend our lives serving the poor and doing the work
of God.”
Well, I mean, yeah you can… really, if you wanted to, you could, and that would be awesome,
but that’s not the point.
The work of God is not limited to explicitly Christian professions and it's about having a fun job.
There are many, MANY ways to do meaningful work that also pay the bills.
Teachers, coaches, counselors, and school administrators have the incredibly important
task of educating the next generation of leaders.
Doctors, PAs, nurses, and hospital staff literally save lives and improve well-being.
Firefighters, police officers, and EMTs respond to crises and put themselves in danger for
the sake of others.
Scientists and researchers unlock life’s mysteries; artists and writers inspire the
mind and heart; cooks and kitchen staff fill our stomachs, and sometimes our souls.
When you labor at these professions, touching the lives of others, improving the world around
us, I firmly believe that you are doing the work of God.
But it’s not just these obviously virtuous professionals.
I suspect that there are very few jobs that don’t have the capacity to give God glory.
When we approach our work with seriousness—giving our best effort, seeking to improve others’
lives—when we don’t just show up to job because we have to but actually bring joy
and order to the world—that too can be the work of God.
You could be a bus driver that shows up late, yells at riders, and is miserable to everyone
around you, or you could be a bus driver who works to be exactly on time, greets people
with a smile, and contributes to a well-working society.
You could be a lawyer who takes advantage of the system and belittles others, or you
could be a lawyer that works for what is just and right.
You could be a stock broker that exploits loopholes to get rich by stealing from the
poor, or you could be a stock broker that finds ways to improve the lives of those in poverty.
Really, it’s the case for almost anything.
Even in professions that appear to offer little obvious satisfaction—sanitation workers,
cogs in factories, pencil pushers in cubicles—there are ways to approach your job that give glory
to God, that honor the act of labor, that bring fulfillment to your day.
It’s about the attitude that we bring to it, a sense that we are using what we’ve
been given to the best of our ability to provide a good for the world.
Work should not be something we simply endure.
It is not a punishment and it is not something we should avoid at all costs.
More than just a means of making money, it is an integral part of our very existence.
To work—that is, to use our gifts to improve the world around us—is an essential part of life.
And so, no, I’m sorry, but it is unlikely that anyone watching this video will every earn
enough from the lottery to quit your job, and so you're probably
going to have to go to work tomorrow.
But really, isn’t that a blessing?
When you think about it—especially in light of all those who cannot find sustainable employment
or who may be unable to work—what a true gift it is that God made us the way he did,
and that we can labor for him.
If you find work difficult, if you just hate your job, if all you want to do is sit on
the beach and drink a piña colada, maybe it’s time to look into another career, but
more likely, maybe it’s time to change the way we approach work in general.
Yes, it is something that we have to do, but it is also something that we get to do.
You might as well give it your best effort and make the most of it.