“Even at night his heart does not rest. […] Yet I have seen that this also comes from the hand of God.”
Ecclesiastes 2:23–24 — translated from the Albanian passage

What fills our days? Work, tiredness, worries… and often, even at night, our minds pick up where we left off during the day. We close the shop, leave the office, finish the job, but inside us the work goes on. How will I manage tomorrow? Will we earn enough? What will happen to my family?

Ecclesiastes says it plainly: “Even at night his heart does not rest.” How many of us know that feeling?

We complain about work, count the hours until it ends, and sometimes try to avoid it altogether. Yet the irony is that we spend so much of our lives working. So why do we treat work as though it were separate from our lives? Why do we expect life to begin only when the working day is over?

And for those of us who believe, I have another question: why do we separate our work from God?

Have you ever wondered where God is in your work? Not just when something goes wrong and you ask Him for help, but when you make a decision, speak to a customer, deal with a difficult colleague, or work when no one is watching.

As a pastor, I need to ask myself that question too. We have our Sunday gathering, our Thursday Bible study, and other ministries. But the people sitting in front of us spend far more time at work than at our meetings. Are we helping them live out their faith there as well?

Dr. K. Shelette Stewart puts it beautifully: “We don’t have a personal life and a professional life. We have ONE life.” That makes me think: it is the same life we have entrusted to Christ. On Monday morning too. When we are tired too. When we need money too.

What Ecclesiastes recognises here is that even the joy we find in our labour comes from the hand of God. The bread we eat, the work we do, and the ability to enjoy what we have are gifts we so often take for granted.

This does not mean work becomes easy, or that every injustice should be endured in silence. It means God has a place there too.

When you work honestly, keep your word, refuse to take shortcuts at someone else’s expense, and care for people, your faith becomes visible. And when you stop to rest, you acknowledge that everything does not depend on you.

Tomorrow, before you begin work, try starting with this prayer:

“Lord, help me remember You here too. In my work, in my decisions, and in the way I treat people. Teach me to work honestly and to enjoy with gratitude what You give me.”

Because this part of our lives belongs to Him too.

Dr. K. Shelette Stewart’s quotation is from Connect Your Career with Your Calling.