Are you following your bliss at work, enjoying each day and sensing that you are doing something important and worthwhile? Or is work no more than a daily slog, the rut getting deeper with each passing day?
There is an old story about the celebrated architect Sir Christopher Wren, 1632-1723, who was commissioned to rebuild London’s churches after the devastation of the Great Fire of 1666. One day while visiting the work site of the reconstruction of St. Paul’s, the grandest of his achievements, he decided to query a worker to get a hands-on perspective on the job being done. He stopped a stone mason at random and asked what he was doing. Sir, replied the mason, I’m doing what I do every day. I lay brick upon brick, stone upon stone, day in and day out. That’s what I do and that’s all I do. Every day, one stone upon another, until the day ends and I go home exhausted, only to return again the following day and do the same thing, stone upon stone . . .
Somewhat flustered by the stone mason’s uninspiring description of his work, Sir Christopher stopped another and asked him the same question: Good fellow, what is it that you do on this work site? Immediately, the man stood, laid down his trowel, looked the inquisitor in the eye, and replied, What am I doing, you ask? Why, kind sir, I am working with Sir Christopher Wren, and together we are building a grand cathedral for the greater honor and glory of God! And Christopher Wren smiled.
How do you see your work? Are you “laying brick upon brick, day in and day out”? Or are you passionately engaged in some great work–for the good of humanity, for the celebration of life, for the honor and glory of God?