Editor: Canon David Winter, a former Head of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC, continues his series presenting a point of view...
The Way I See It: The dignity of work
May 1st is marked as ‘Labour Day’ in many countries, and in the UK the trade unions have traditionally made it their annual festival. It’s seen as an opportunity to recognise the role of work (‘labour’) in human society and to honour its value and dignity.
In the biblical story of creation the first man, later named ‘Adam’, was immediately given work to do by the Creator: ‘The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it’. So Adam the gardener took on what was probably a rather pleasant if lonely job, only blotting his employment record when he flagrantly broke the Boss’s rules, aided and abetted by his new wife, Eve. It concerned a piece of fruit, you may remember.
Subsequently in the long history of humanity work has been a common experience - not always enjoyable, as Adam‘s was. Indeed, part of the penalty for Adam and Eve’s disobedience in that ancient story was that the man’s work, hitherto a joy, would become hard and painful -’by the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread’. And so it has been. Most people throughout human history have worked for a living, or have worked equally hard in the home, and much of that work has been onerous.
On the other hand, work has benefits over and beyond mere economic survival. There is a distinct satisfaction in a job well done, whether it be brain surgery or feeding 40 hungry kids in a school canteen. The Old Preacher Ecclesiastes in the Bible talks of ‘taking pleasure in all our toil’, and in a sense most of us know what that means. To that simple feeling of achievement (‘it was tough, but I’ve done it!‘) we can add the satisfaction of team work, the daily presence of work colleagues and the reassuring rhythm of a daily routine. And then there’s the pay - a kind of recognition that what we have done has value to others. Add all that together and one can appreciate why not working can seem like a distinct deprivation.
So on Labour Day we might think this year about all those who have no work to do - certainly not in the sense of a paid job. I’m not thinking of those whose invaluable ‘work’ is at home, raising and caring for children - it’s hard to think of a more important task to undertake. But for the rest, the very word ‘unemployed’ has an empty and rather desperate ring to it. I have friends who have been looking for work for months, and I know how discouraging the whole experience must be. The last thing they need is to be labelled as failures, or even work-shy.
It would seem that God made us for work - ‘service’, if you like. While it doesn’t necessarily have to be paid to qualify, as retired people know, there is a sense in which payment, large or small, gives recognition and respect to what the worker does. As we see around us many young people, especially, struggling with the fear that they won’t ever get a job at all, it’s important that we don’t shut our eyes to the problem. Prayer, yes of course. But whenever we can, by the votes we cast, the decisions we make about spending, by the support we can give to schemes and projects to create jobs, we can help to make a society that works, in every sense of the word.
Editor: How organised are you? Bill Allen is a Business Improvement Specialist who works with companies of all sizes to help improve their productivity, leadership, sales and marketing. He also works as an adviser on time management for Christians. He can be contacted at www.improvementspecialist.co.uk
When manyana is just a bit too sudden!
You have probably heard about the Spanish word for tomorrow (mañana is the Spanish spelling) which in English, of course, really means ‘putting something off till tomorrow’. In Cornwall they call it ‘d’rectly’ which, to those who hear it, wish it DID mean directly. (In fact, as ‘d’rectly’ can have ANY time attached to it, it is probably even worse than the Spanish ‘manyana’.) But whatever we call it, most of us are not immune from a tendency towards procrastination. And procrastination is the thief of time.
Now, when you analyse why you procrastinate, you discover something: you don’t really put off anything that you want to do, or know how to do. When confronting your behaviour, you will find that the reason you procrastinate is either because you have no clear idea how to start the task, or because you don’t really want to do it at all. Either way, you need the urgency of the deadline to kick-start you into action.
Therefore you will find that you need some simple techniques to overcome your inertia. First, try the Salami technique. This works when a problem is just too big to get hold of. What you do, is to slice it up into thinner slices, or chunks. Then it will be easier to tackle. Still don’t know how to start? Try taking a piece of paper and writing down everything that you do know about the problem, until you can see a starting point. If not then, ask for outside help. Don’t just walk away. Then, you can use the Five Minute Plan (everyone can spare five minutes in a day) to do one of the tasks, either just before coffee or just before lunch. Tell yourself you can’t leave your desk until you have spent five minutes on that project.
But what if you just need a good kick to get it done? Well, a good technique is to ‘Go Public’. Tell everyone that you are going to do this project. Then you will have no choice but to do it! Another method is to put written reminders to yourself everywhere, and then to use the Nike technique of ‘Just do it’. If that fails, then use the method called ‘Eat the worst frog first’. In other words, get a bit of that dreaded task done first in any day, as from there on, the day can only get better!
Whichever technique you use, remember at some point you will have to do it – and procrastinating only makes it last even longer.
Be happy – get moving!
Do you feel a bit out of sorts? When did you last take some exercise? Just 25 minutes of vigorous exercise each day can help you beat depression and instead give you a real sense of wellbeing.
A recent study has said that exercise should be more widely prescribed by doctors for people who are feeling down. Often it works better that pills to combat anxiety disorders. Exercise can certainly relieve symptons of fear and related sensations such as a racing heart and rapid breathing. It can also lower your anger levels.
The team of psychologists from the southern Methodist University in Dallas found that exercise appears to affect neurotransmitters in your brain, in a similar way to antidepressants. Says one: “After only 25 minutes, your mood improves, you are less stressed, you have more energy, and you’ll be motivated to exercise again tomorrow. A bad mood is no longer a barrier to exercise – it is the very reason to exercise.”
Read to your children
Read to your children on a daily basis – or they could be vulnerable to developing social and emotional problems. It seems that the ‘intimate’ activity of sharing a book or telling a story to your child can be ‘enormously powerful’ in building a bond between you which helps them feel emotionally secure, and helps develop their social skills.
According to recent research by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, reading to children daily can reduce the number of three and five year-olds with social and emotional problems by up to 20 per cent. As one professor explained: “There is something quite special about reading or telling stories to children... that level of intimacy between parents and young children.” As Proverbs points out: “A child left to himself disgraces his mother...” If we want our children to grow up well, we need to give them our time.
Does laziness run in your family?
The love of keeping fit may be in your genes. Sadly, the love of being a couch potato may also be inherited. A recent study found that mice can be bred for activity levels, and that they were able to hand this gene down to their offspring. As one expert observed: “We have a huge epidemic of obesity, yet have little understanding of what determines... voluntary exercise levels.” The writer of the Proverbs was perhaps less polite: ‘How long will you lie there, you sluggard?’
The joy of smiling
Want to feel your smiling best this spring? Then stay away from Botox. Research into the anti-wrinkle treatment has discovered that being unable to smile when you are happy actually feeds back to the brain, and reduces the intensity of your happy feelings.
Botox, used to fight facial wrinkles, is made of an extremely toxic protein which temporarily paralyses the muscles that cause creases. This ‘freezes’ the face, and New York research has found that a person with limited ability to make facial expressions also has a limited ability to feel emotions. God seems to have given us our facial muscles for a good reason: ‘A cheerful look brings joy to the heart’ the Bible tells us. (Prov 15:30) So – SMILE! Be happy!
Are you addicted to the internet?
Most of us feel edgy, upset and deprived when we are denied access to the internet, even for a short period of time. A recent study found that even a day without the internet, smart phones and other devices leaves us feeling as edgy as anyone stopping smoking or drinking.
The study, conducted by Intersperience, concluded: “Online and digital technology is increasingly pervasive, influencing our friendships, the way we communicate, the fabric of our family life, our work lives, our buying habits and our dealings with organisations.”
The internet was not around when the Bible was written, but some basic principles never change: whenever you go on Facebook, or on-line shopping, remember this: “It is a trap for a man to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider his vows.” (Prov 20:25)
Misery has company
If you feel sad, you are not alone. One in ten adults has been diagnosed with depression, and the number of prescriptions issued for anti-depressant drugs has risen four-fold in the past 20 years.
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics show that doctors in England issued 39.1 million prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac in 2009; four times higher than the 1991 level of nine million.
The Bible urges us to turn to God when we are unhappy. It invites us to pray along with the Psalmist: “Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eyes grow weak with sorrow, my soul and my body with grief... My times are in your hands; deliver me from my enemies...save me in your unfailing love.” (Psalm 31: 9,15)
Spoilt with choice
In the past decade we have been hit with an extraordinary explosion of choice in almost every area of our lives. Fancy a coffee? Is that cappuccino, lattte, flat white, Americano or espresso; skinny, full-fat, double or single shot, small, medium or large?
Want to watch some television? On Freeview you have over a hundred choices; many more than that on cable. You will find programmes you never dreamed of, even in your worst nightmares. Do you like computer games? The choice is endless. What about music on your iPod? You can download more music that you will ever have time to listen to in your lifetime. Want to play with your laptop or iPad ? There are hundreds of thousands of apps you can choose from...
No one is still these days. We surf, we text, we email, we listen to iPods. We may all live in the same house, but we seldom sit and share an experience together; instead we roost around the house, each absorbed and tapping at our electronic devices.
We all seem to be living in a state of permanent distraction, and some dislocation from those physically closest to us. We can find anything on the internet, but we can’t find time to appreciate it. We have 400 friends on Facebook, but how many true friends in the flesh? We pay more attention to our emails than members of our own family...
One writer has recently wisely observed that if we don’t slow down, we will ‘carry on twitching aimlessly to the beat of endless distraction, gradually choosing ourselves sick.’ The Bible urges us to take time to “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10
Breakfast on the run
So how long does it take you to have breakfast? Probably about three minutes and 15 seconds. You eat standing up, if you bother at all – many of us grab something on our way to work.
Recent research by Weetabix has found that one in 20 of us has breakfast in the bathroom, while others of us eat while getting dressed, or in front of our laptops, catching up with emails and Facebook from the night before.
Yet one dietician notes that, with our lives so busy, “making time for a healthy breakfast to help us through the day is more important than ever... People who miss breakfast don’t make up for it nutritionally later in the day.”
Surely the most memorable breakfast of all time took place early one morning beside the Sea of Galilee. (Jn 21:12) It was fish cooked on hot coals, and bread. What made it special is that Jesus prepared it for his disciples. What made it absolutely unique is that he had just recently risen from the dead.... no modern celebrity chef is likely to manage that one!
The thrill that modern children are missing...
One third of all children do not own a book. This figure has tripled in the past seven years, and has been described as ‘frightening’ by education experts. Jilly Cooper, the author, calls such findings “appalling”. “Reading is such a magical carpet to other worlds. Reading really is the most important thing in the world.” Another author adds: “Children are missing out on one of the richest and most thrilling experiences they can have, which is reading.” The study was carried out by the National Literacy Trust.
Packed lunches
Almost half of us prefer to make our own lunch rather than use takeaways or canteens, according to a recent poll. We tend to spend less than £10 a week on lunch, and our favourite sandwiches are ham, followed by cheese, chicken salad, egg and cress and BLT.
It seems the economic downturn has made buying high street sandwiches a luxury, rather than a daily necessity. More concerning, the research from VoucherCodes.co.uk found that one in 20 people (five per cent of us) stop eating altogether during the day, as household budgets continue to be squeezed. The Bible is all for sandwiches, even stale ones: “Better a dry crust with peace and quiet, than a house full of feasting, with strife.” (Prov 17:1)
Beware iPad hand....
If you use your iPad or another tablet computer for hours each day, you could be at risk of developing chronic muscular pains. Doctors are starting to see the first signs of various problems, including repetitive strain injury, from those who spend hours each day on the devices. People are complaining of aches and pains in the hand in which they hold the device, and in the fingers they use to type, swipe and search the screen. Others have arm and neck pain from bending over the tablet. As one iPad user admits: “It is very challenging finding a comfortable body posture while using the iPad.”
High blood pressure? Have 8 cups of tea
The British have long enjoyed de-stressing over a hot cup of tea. Now scientists in Australia have found that tea really does lower the blood pressure. In tests it was found that drinking eight cups of black tea a day ‘significantly’ cuts blood pressure, according to research from the University of Western Australia. So – put the kettle on!