Making Drudgery Divine

George Herbert (1593-1633), whose sweet spirit still shines through his verse, once wrote:

A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,
Makes that and th' action fine.

Herbert's point was that even the most menial, repetitive of tasks can be a source of personal satisfaction if we regard our work as being done "as for the Lord." The first stanza of the poem expresses the same thought:

Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything
To do it as for Thee.

Someone once called this attitude "the sanctification of the commonplace"; it is the perfect antidote to boredom.


Don't you get tired of hearing how bored people are? My sainted Grandmother Taylor used to say,"Those who are bored have usually done nothing to deserve it!" Then she would grin and go back to cleaning her tiny home. Her attitude was decidedly Victorian (which is what she was, since she was born in 1900 when Victoria still reigned). Grandma had a very high view of the value of work. I don't think she was ever bored. At twelve years of age she went to work in the weaving shed at her local cotton mill in Blackburn, Lancashire. She was a 'piecer,' crawling beneath the flying shuttles, perilously close to the unguarded machinery, reaching through the moving threads to 'piece' together those that had broken. It must have been terrifying for a child. Maybe it was the elements of risk that kept it from being tedious.
On the other hand, perhaps Grandma realized that she had a job to do, and that she might as well do it to the best of her ability. She would say, "You can't be busy and bored." I think she was right. No job needs to be boring if it is well done.
Our society is in danger of regarding work as a necessary evil that must be endured. Increasingly, we are defining ourselves by our leisure, not by our emloyment, nor by our relationship to God. We no longer live to work; neither do we work to live; we live to play. As Neil Postman put it, we are "amusing ourselves to death."
To be fair, changes in employment practice have probably contributed to this change in attitude. For example, in our community, in Texas, it used to be the case that a job in the chemical industry was a job for life. It was not unusual for those employed by a chemical company to stay there for forty years or more. Not so today. A changing world economy has led to some changes, but others have arisen as a result of a different management culture. The perception is that workers are more expendable nowadays. Older employees are sometimes sacrificed because they cost more, or because a provision in their pension plan is about to be triggered. Camaraderie and satisfaction in a shared enterprise seem to have disappeared. Work has become a struggle to survive. We are, as Falconer put it, captives "fettered to the oar of gain."
What can be done? Are we condemned to live in misery, equally fearful of both unemployment and work? There are two things that can help us, I believe. They are: a recovery of pride and purpose in our work; and, the imagination. It may sound terribly naive, but wouldn't it help if we were able to regard our work as our vocation? If we believe that we have been given certain talents and abilities, and if we are able to employ these, to some degree, at work, then should we not regard that work as God-given? This is what George Herbert was getting at. In the same way, Paul urged his readers to be "not slothful in business... serving the Lord," (Romans 12:11) which implies that the performance of every day duties is serving the Lord and earning His approval. My boss may not appreciate me; my supervisor may not remember my name; but God sees my labor, and smiles. If nothing else, this attitude shoul help me to recover a sense of personal dignity. Yes, I am worth something! I may not make much difference, but the difference I do make can be a powerful witness for good. There are enough cynics out there - the world does not need another one. I should work hard, do my best, and if I can help to make someone's day just a little better, then I should do it!



The second antidote to terminal weariness is the imagination. When my imagination is crushed, when the child in me no longer wonders what lies around the next corner, then of course I am bored. In a sense, I am bored when I become too self-satisfied. The self-centered person often falls prey to self-pity. The windows of the imagination become shuttered and the soul shrivels up. When I cease to treat life as a great adventure, when there are no more mysteries to be explored, then my life becomes sordid and dull.
But if my imagination is allowed to flower and flourish then, even in the dullest of places, I can still find something new. I will not be an observer of the drama of life, I will be a participant, and I shall play my part with gusto, and my days will be richer as a result.


Robert Louis Stevenson (a man who lived every moment of life) concluded his morning prayer with these words:
"When the day returns, return to us as our sun and comforter, and call us up with morning faces and morning hearts, eager to labour, eager to be happy if happiness shall be our portion, and if the day be marked for sorrow, strong to endure."
With a sense of pride and purpose, and a quickened imagination, even drudgery can be made divine.

This is the famous stone
That turneth all to gold;
For that which God doth touch and own
Cannot for less be told.