no "laboring"?

currently listening to: Jon Troast

It's Labor Day morning and I'm sitting here waking up on our couch, thinking about what a strange holiday this is. I started thinking about it when yesterday, in prayers for the people, we prayed for those who live and work in unfair living conditions around the world. Labor Day has always seemed like a weird holiday, "hey, let's all not go to work one day and call it 'labor day'." huh.

Most of the world could never afford the luxury of just taking a day off. Last night at a church event we listened to a couple who had just come back from a summer in Niger--hearing them reminded me of the ways of life I lived and observed in Mozambique (in particular). There is no day without labor--they wouldn't think of it. Livelihood depends on a long, hard day of work. I think the idea of a "holiday" to not work would be unthinkable, almost laughable.

So maybe you have this Labor Day off, like I do. I hope you take time to think about the privilege it is to have a day like this, use it well, and shed some of the entitlement that we can easily express during such times ("you have to work on Labor Day--I'm so sorry!") There's a world out there struggling to get food on the table and we live in such plenty. I hope God makes us a grateful and generous people.