Tired of Working Early and Late?

Psalm 127:2

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

² It is useless to get up early and stay up late in order to earn a living. God takes care of his own, even while they sleep.

When we went to Africa, I taught math and various other subjects at Ikizu Secondary School. Classes started every morning at 7:00, and I taught until about 2:00 in the afternoon on every weekday except Friday when classes ended at noon.

The school assigned me other responsibilities. Primarily, I had to keep all of the machinery on campus working. This included lawnmowers, a tractor, an electricity generator, and a water pump. I also managed the school’s printing press which printed pamphlets and various other forms and papers. The press was made in 1905, if I remember correctly. Cooks in the school kitchen used wood-fired stoves to cook food for our students. For a couple years I had to keep a supply of wood for the kitchen at all times.

As I look back on it, I wonder how on earth I found time to do all of this. We generated our own electricity, which was only on from 6:00 to 9:30 in the evenings. This was a blessing in disguise. It meant that darkness settled on campus at 9:30 p.m. So although I got up early to meet my classes, I also got to bed shortly after 9:30 almost every evening. In times of emergency, most notably when the water pump went out, I would work on it sometimes until dawn.

During the rest of my teaching career I often started teaching at 8:00 in the morning and went until 10:00 or later every night. As time went by this schedule became more and more onerous. In later years I would pull into my garage and then just sit in the car, too tired to go in and go to bed. More and more I came to realize that this kind of working is, as the Psalmist said, useless and in vain.

Thank You, Lord, that You give us the ability to work and provide for our families but that You also expect us to get our full quota of rest.