"Don't Work Too Hard."

I was at work the other day running food to customers. I had just delivered a lady's meal to her car door and we exchanged the usual pleasantries between friendly customer and hard worker. I was about to return to my post and deliver more food when she said something rather shocking to me:

"Don't work too hard."

I'd heard the phrase many times before, and, for some reason, it always stands out to me. I mean, that's not something that really makes sense in today's business model. After all, according to the consumerist mentality of today, the baseline concern of a customer is to get their purchase in the most efficient, speedy way possible. This is reinforced by the baseline concern of a business: making money, hopefully through customer satisfaction. This means hard work for the employees. And even beyond the business world into the spiritual world, hard work is very strongly encouraged. It's commonplace to endorse hard work by saying, "Do everything as unto the Lord" (Colossians 3:23 conceptually). So, for a customer to tell me, as both an employee and a person with a spirit, not to work too hard is blatantly counter-cultural. It contradicts both the standard business and religious worldview of today.

Unfortunately, whether out of reaction to laziness or a broken picture of time well-spent, standard Christian and business culture have adopted a worldview that worships hyperactivity and work. Productivity is the new rave. Am I saying that hard work is bad? Absolutely not. I'm saying that, as humans, we've only got so much room on the shelf of our life, and when we continue to shove more books onto our shelf, others are hitting the floor. I believe some priceless books hit the floor far too often.

Let me explain what I mean.

Assembly Line Christianity:

According to Jefferson Bethke, October 7, 1913 was one of the major turning points in American History. It was the day Henry Ford created the moving assembly line. This single invention completely changed how we see the world. Suddenly, through teamwork and unity, more work was being done than we previously thought possible. Amazing right? Yes, but with a cost.

It (the assembly line) made efficiency a god. It made time a god. It created the ultimate pursuit of profit over everything. It gave us the operating principle of giving the least amount of energy for the highest return...I'm not saying the assembly-line-built car is evil either. The car is incredible. What I am saying is, there are always tradeoffs. Concessions. Ramifications. Changes. Have we even thought about these? Are we okay with them? (To Hell with the Hustle pg. 37).

Have we actually looked at our lives and evaluated what our nonstop work is costing us? We don't realize that we've paid a price for our increased emphasis on work. In my opinion, that price is often too high to pay. There are some lambs too precious to be sacrificed on the altar of achievement. Health is one. Community is another. Rest is another. The only lamb that should be sacrificed on the altar of your achievement is your own sweat. When we begin to work at the cost of things more valuable than our sweat, such as our relationships and downtime, we begin to burn out our own soul and accept all the consequences that come with it.

The Final Resting Place of Rest:

This principle is illustrated perfectly by a Doctor Who episode aired on November 15, 2015. In the show, people are trapped on a spaceship in a future where humanity has maximized its productivity, "revolutionized the labor market," and "conquered nature" by creating sleep-pods which remove the need for elongated human rest. A machine "concentrates the whole nocturnal experience into one 5-minute burst," enabling humans to work for a whole month without sleep. The consequence is that the sleep dust of our eyes accumulates into living monsters set on killing us. While the telling is slightly corny, the moral of the episode is a profound one, summed up beautifully in one of its lines:

Sleep is essential to every sentient being in the universe. But to humans—greedy, filthy, stupid humans—it’s an inconvenience to be bartered away. Well, now we know the truth. Sleep isn’t just a function, it’s blessed. Every night we dive deep into the inky pool, deep into the arms of Morpheus. Every morning we wake up and wipe the sleep from our eyes. And that keeps us safe. Safe from the monsters inside. (Doctor Who, 'Sleep No More'). 

You see, if we're not careful, we'll become a culture that idolizes effort. We'll brag about our grind, grit, and guts while running straight into our own grave. We'll praise the black holes under someone's eyes under the guise of recognizing excellence while our relationships deteriorate. We’ll become the city that never sleeps. We'll call rest laziness. We'll deify hyperactivity. And to make matters worse, when we work, we'll work for the merely valuable rather than the truly priceless. We'll want more, and more, and more.

And book after book will fall from our shelf.

Many of us finally crawl onto the peak of Mt. Excellence, having sacrificed all to get there. Congratulations, you've succeeded in your pursuit; you're now the best. You have the most instagram followers in the world. You finally got that promotion. You won your gold medal. But at what cost? I mean, sure, you ran straight into the Guinness Book of World Records, but did you look back to see if your marriage is still behind you? How's your emotional health? How's your soul feel? You are now excellent, but what did you sacrifice to get here? The truth is that excellence sometimes has a price that is too high to pay. Many climb to the top of a mountain and behold their success for one ecstatic moment, only to realize they’re naked in the cold and dying in the lonely wind. Where is the point where striving for excellence becomes no longer excellent? What is the point where succeeding in a pursuit is no longer noble? At what point does work become too hard?

The point at which each step forward begins to kill something indispensable.

Sources: 

1. To Hell with the Hustle (Jefferson Bethke)
2. Colossians (the Apostle Paul)
3. Doctor Who, "Sleep No More" (Mark Gatiss)
4. Illustrations (Kevin Carden Photography)