Happy Labor?

Happy Labor day everyone! Or can I say "Happy Labor Day?"

How in the world can you put the words 'happy' and 'labor' together in the same sentence and have it sound correct? Don't get me wrong, I think everyone needs to eventually do some good old-fashioned hard work, but can this really be possible?

During the 18 years that I have lived on this green earth, I have never, repeat NEVER associated the word 'work' with the word 'happy.' Again, don't misunderstand me. I do like to keep busy with little jobs and projects. But normally when I hear the word 'work,' I remember a time when I was helping my dad lay sprinkler pipes in our backyard. I think it was like 104 degrees, and we were hunched over the trenches with our faces painfully close to the searingly-hot ground. With the sweat running into my eyes and dripping off my nose, I helped my dad finish laying the pipe.

That is work. Nothing happy about it except maybe the satisfaction of a job well done. Even that feeling was only mildly pleasant since I think I was still feeling faint from the heat.

The point of this post is not to let you know that I know how to lay sprinkler pipe, but to show everyone that there is a major issue with the name of this "holiday." I would never associate work with happy. Or maybe I would if I was feeding the hungry or helping wash the church bus. I think work can be fun, in fact, I am sure of it. OK, you can just forget everything that I just said about work being unhappy. Never mind.

Ecclesiastes 5:19 "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God."