I have many wonderful tools. The Laptop I am writing this on. A Tablet that is so powerful it could nearly replace this laptop. A Smart Phone that’s as powerful as the tablet. Tools are supposed to make your life easier. Imagine trying to remove a screw from the wall without a screwdriver. You would have to be very inventive, so inventive you invented a screwdriver.

I saw invention like that happen during my time working in a Jail as a Deputy Sheriff.  I found many homemade screwdrivers. Inmates would get metal, any metal like the band holding the eraser to the pencil and use it to undo the little screw holding the receptacle plate to the wall. Then they would use that same metal to unscrew the wires, touch them and make sparks. Some even used this source to melt the end of their toothbrush and while the plastic was still hot press it to the security screws which were round heads with snake eye holes that only security companies sold the bits to. The plastic would dry as it cooled and then they would have a crude screwdriver to take out the screws holding the security plates on the walls. We alway found them before they could get through the plates and discover the solid concrete wall behind them.

That’s the way many of us work though. We spend incredible time and effort trying to get out of the situation we are in right now, instead of making the most of our present duty and finding purpose, meaning and joy in the task at hand. So we make, buy and yearn for bigger and better tools.

The problem with tools though, is we tend to think the tool is the thing we need to do better. I need a  better widget to be more productive, creative, valued. Its because we are always looking for shortcuts. We think that the end goal of our work is happiness. Work hard enough and at some point you will have enough to be happy. But the goal of work itself is happiness. Do you get that? Work doesn’t lead to happiness. Work is happiness.

Genesis 2:4…These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,                                                                         5.… And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground                                                                                                                                                                     7… And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.                                                                                                      15… And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Its in the founding of our Nation… Life Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I heard Evangelist Marine Tim Lee (@MarineTimLee) say once the way to pursue happiness is to get a job and work it!

Work is a gift of happiness. If you dread going to work, take a risk and search for work  that feeds your soul.

Then you won’t be searching for a tool to keep you from having to work so hard. You will want the work to be hard. You will enjoy and embrace the difficulties and challenges of your job. That’s what makes it worthwhile.