Ora et Labora, Work and Pray

Hey Everyone,

As I write this, I am unsure if I actually believe it, but it is an idea that seems to make sense in our modern world. Understand these are thoughts to make the reader think instead of complaining about our modern situation and world.

 For centuries, the world functioned off of a “where you were basis.” What I mean by this is that you only knew about what was actually around you. There were no newspapers, few books, no radio, no tv, no cell phones, and definitely no social media platforms. You knew what you saw or what you heard from a person close by. In these times, people and the subject of my writing, Christians, lived much simpler lives than we do today. Today we can find and learn about any information we want with a click of a button. We can even know what's going on in another country or what's going on in a distant relative's life without having to speak to them. Far different from today, the life of the early Christians was very simple. As a Christian, all you really did was “work and pray.” If a Christian worked and prayed with strong faith and a loving heart, I come to think, that was what God wanted! A life of working and praying was what he willed for most lay people! As a battle or war between good and evil, if you controlled yourself and led your families to be better Christians living the faith and working hard, you were helping the Church and adding to “the greater good” of the world. Evil was around obviously, but you had to physically be near it to be affected. 

We Christians’ find ourselves in much different times today. In our modern world that seems to be run by a technological force, we find that living a simple life of “working and praying” has become much more difficult. Many Christians have fought the evolution of this modern world by holding on to traditional values. This is a beautiful way to fight these evils, however many of us travel into the world everyday when we go to work and are unable to avoid the world and its ugliness. Many who run businesses and “work” to support families are forced to keep up with technological advancement or we get left behind financially. It seems that not adjusting to the advancement of technology could have detrimental effects on your family and financial stability. I think this is a battle us Christians have today. Though I do believe there is nothing morally wrong with poverty, I do believe poverty centuries ago is very different from poverty today. Living in a world that constantly boasts its evil in your face, today’s poverty stricken environments does not make life any simpler, but possibly exposes those to the world’s evils even more. Addictions and violence seems to be very popular in these areas today. There are not many places in America where we can escape the evils that are being thrown in our face through smart phones, tv, billboards, news, etc. This media world has seemed to have taken over the world and people's minds, attention, and morals. It seems something sinister sits behind it all controlling what we see and hear. 

The world has become a rich man’s world more than ever before. I do acknowledge the fact that there were evil kings and leaders that caused much evil in others lives, but never before have we seen the rich control lives like they do now. With the click of buttons, the rich evils control our TVs, Iphones, music, etc. I constantly watch Christians complain about new laws, complain about commercials, and complain about sports leagues that are controlling the war between good and evil. My question is simple. Are our complaints the only form of weapons that we fight with? I know many will be quick to answer, no we pray too! Though I think prayers are our most powerful weapons we Christians have to fight with today, think for a second about our “work.”

What “work” do most people find themselves doing today? Most of our jobs or occupations are actually quite unimportant to the world today. Many of our jobs may be in forms of entertainment/sport, luxury, or working for a powerful corporation that at the highest level is in deep with the rich evils that run the world. Is this the “work” that our God was speaking about or does God possibly expect a different form of work today. Much of our work today is pointless in the “greater good” of the world. Much of our work today is not, “the good ole boy” work from the past. Many of our occupations have our hands tied in creating “good” in this world. We are either being led by rich evils at the top or we do not make enough money to create enough importance to help make decisions at the top. My question is simple: What if good Christian people had as much money or more money than all the evil? Would our laws be different, would we have a better choice of tv channels and commercials, could we create our own social media platforms and movies, and could we protect our children better from evil? Maybe this is not the fight of a Christian, but it seems obvious to me that Satan’s plan to dominate space started with the plan to control the world’s money while we Christians believed we were supposed to be working our 9 to 5.

I am not downing anyone who works a 9 to 5, but I am questioning a common Christian belief. Is “money” the actual root of all evil, or was that a chest move by Satan to control our modern world? Or could money be a weapon that our “work” was supposed to bring? I am unsure. What do you think God wants us to do? Keep complaining about the commercials, music, and sports organizations or “work” and pray to fight for the “greater good” of all humanity!