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Good morning. The holiday break is over. Today much of the nation goes cold turkey and faces the unfinished business it left on its desk the day before Christmas Eve. We’re told Britain has the highest employment rate in the West. Three-quarters of the working-age population are in work. Unemployment is at early-seventies levels. But how does that feel when we return to our work-space after a few days and resume battle with an unforgiving balance sheet, enervating colleagues, repetitive tedium, or the relentless evidence of our own failure? If we have a human aspiration – be it voluntary or paid, in the home or outside – work names the way we achieve that aspiration. It can be rewarding if the aspiration is noble, and joyful if the means of getting there are fruitful. It can be demeaning if the aspiration is unworthy, and miserable if neither the aspiration nor the means have much to commend them. A few days of leisure may make us wonder, ‘Will the aspiration ever be within reach?’, ‘Are the means of getting there too demanding or demoralising?’, and, ‘Are the ancillary rewards sufficient to keep me going nonetheless?’ If the answer to any of those questions is no, returning to work may evoke something between a scowl and an allergic reaction. Work can go wrong when it becomes too little – when we become cynical about the goal, disrespectful of colleagues, or convinced that our skills are going to waste. Work can also go wrong when it becomes too much – when it requires excessive time, absurd levels of commitment, or unsustainable loyalty, such that we feel ourselves becoming addicts or slaves. When the New Testament talks about receiving the Holy Spirit, it doesn’t describe an otherworldly feeling of peace or contentment. It talks about an invigorating sense of empowerment for the task ahead of us – a sensation of being clothed with energy and skill to get the job done together. Work shouldn’t be a curse or a burden: it should be a gift – a wonderful opportunity to apply our talents to a project, find joy in being yoked to the honest endeavour of others, receive and offer affirmation and recognition as decisions bear fruit, setbacks yield wisdom, obstacles are overcome and effort produces results, and finally feel the satisfaction of a team achieving its goal. The first day back at work may be a painful discovery of how far our job is from what work should be. But in the end life is about saying thank you for the gifts we’ve been given by putting those gifts to use. And the name we most commonly give to putting our gifts to use is, ‘work.’