In response to Fulfillment by the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics.

I remember the first job I really hated. For each long summer during college, I worked nights in a bulk food warehouse picking up orders and loading trucks. It was good money, hard work and long hours.

The worst part? My co-workers were vulgar in the extreme. Every phrase they could turn into something perverse, they would. I’d collapse in bed after each shift, trying to get their creative profanities out of my mind.

Today, 30-some years later, I have what some would consider a dream job as a ministry leader. No one here curses or makes crude jokes. And I get to spend my days writing and teaching and leading like-minded people to do what Jesus told us to do ― make disciples of the nations.

But here’s a secret: I still struggle to view every day as a gift. Way too often I still find myself dragging through my day or longing for that magical hour ― 5 p.m. Friday ― when I can be free of my job. The popularity of TGI Fridays restaurants shows how eagerly many of us want to escape work.

The barista in this video said it well: today is a gift! And so is work! It’s God’s gift to mankind as glad stewards of His creation, given before sin ever entered the picture.

So why do we struggle so much? I see two reasons. First, all of creation, work included, was subjected to what the Bible calls the “futility” of sin (Romans 8:20). Laziness, greed, ingratitude and a thousand other vices have marred the beauty and purpose that God built into our work. Second, Satan, the great liar, tries to convince us that work stinks and that we should “thank God it’s Friday” ― thank God that we can be free of the very thing He created us to enjoy. How utterly absurd!

Whether I’m loading trucks with frozen food or writing truth about God’s design for work, God loves it when I “work at it with all my heart, as working for the Lord and not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23, NIV). Why? Because He made work. And it is good. And I work for Him. And He pays really, really well: “You know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward” (Colossians 3:24, NIV).

The barista in the video is right on. “When we work hard every day at whatever God puts in front of us,” she says, “it pleases Him and it’s way more fulfilling for us.”

Dale Losch joined Crossworld as a disciple-maker in France in 1988, and has served as Crossworld’s president since 2009. He loves to motivate people to use their God-given passions to make disciples wherever life happens. Hear more from Dale.