Knute Larson Speaks - Medina, Ohio

By Mark Mosgrove

    What’s so good about work, really?
    Pastor Knute Larson asked that question and shared his insights about prioritizing our attitudes about work with faith and family.
    Over one hundred local business people came to a breakfast meeting to hear Larson speak. Admittedly, some came because they’ve seen or heard him on television or radio, but others came simply because they are looking for more peace in their lives. Or maybe some came just to get some breakfast and rub elbows with other business people.
    But whatever the reason for attending the meeting, many left pondering one of the most perplexing questions of life - Do we work to live, or live to work?
    The program was sponsored by The Executive Club at Rustic Hills Country Club. Those in attendance were given an insightful, frank, yet often humorous take on what work should mean to us in our lives.
    Larson, the senior pastor of a staff of nineteen at The Chapel in Akron, finds that striving to fulfill the needs of a large staff and congregation can be thought consuming.
    Let’s face it, pastoring any size church is a tough job, but pastoring The Chapel is kind of like being the mayor of city - but you’re not responsible for making sure the roads are plowed and the public utilities are operating - you’re responsible for people’s souls!
    It might have seemed a surprise to some when Larson commented on his own humanity, this observation based in regret, yet in knowing acceptance of his own human inadequacies: “My goal in life is to wake up in the middle of the night, and think of The Lord . . . But I never do.” Instead, his thoughts are on the operations of the church. With work issues swirling in his head, the focus for this pastor can often start to shift away from God, to the stresses of his job.
    “Work becomes our identity sometimes,” he said. It is ingrained in our culture. “One of the first thing we ask people when we meet them is, “What do you do?’”
    We classify people by their occupation, sizing them up by their job description and not their soul description. You are not a banker, or a pastor, or a real estate agent, he said, but you are something more than a job title. “Many see their whole self worth in their job, so when they retire, they’re done.”
    Balance is needed for ultimate happiness. “Life goes by so quickly, and we don’t take time to smell the roses,” he said.
    But in today’s aggressive work environment, where more demands are being put on workers to produce more in less time, it can seem nearly impossible to escape the trap of being consumed about our careers. Our very lives depend on our income, we reason, so it would follow that our jobs need to be the most important thing in our lives.
    Not so, says Larson. By changing the focal point of our energies from work to God, a new sense of purpose can be found, one with the ultimate payoff.
    “Whatever you do for the Lord, it has meaning,” he said. “If you do work for The Lord, you can do it with Joy.”
    Larson said that we have a tendency to not take care of our inner needs. We put too much vision on our work, and not on our inner needs and God.
    “If a possum dies along the road, and a person dies, it is all under the sun. Remember your Creator - get above the sun.”
    Not connecting spiritually means living life with no meaning. It matters how we treat others - our spouses, our children, our neighbors. He quoted the Bible verse, “If you gain the whole world and lose your soul, you lose everything.”
    In one of his more frank commentaries, Larson said that people will often delude themselves into the notion that their hearts are in the right place and their spiritual lives have meaning. He recounted a conversation he had with a close friend, in which he asked the frank question, “If you die and go to Heaven, and God asked you why He should let you in, what would you say?”
    His friend thought for a while and answered,” I would tell him that I did my best.”
    As only one could do with a close friend, Larson responded that the first thing his friend would say to God is a lie. Realistically, how can anyone say they did their best? One can always do better! We convince ourselves that we are doing our best, but deep down we are really deceiving ourselves.
    Sometimes employers demand that you sell your soul to them in order to advance (or regrettably, to just maintain your current job). It takes a great deal of guts to quit a a high-paying and prestigious job, but sometimes the cost can indeed by your soul -- if not after we’re gone from this world, but at least in our everyday lives with our family, friends and community.
    And sometimes it’s just the little things that can put God at the center of our jobs.
    “Believe in ‘free work’,” Larson said. “Believe in giving your time freely . . . to serve others and to serve The Lord. Every good gift comes from above.”
    “Be really good at what you do . . . but be really good at giving help.”