Work is an Act of Worship

On a sheet of paper taped to the wall of our bedroom (formerly Anita’s office) says, “Work is an Act of Worship.”

I used to be afriad that Anita was a workaholic. She was the hardest working person I ever met. In law school, she studied endlessly. At her firms, she was gone long hours. I remember one year she was preparing for a trial and she worked every day in November, December, January and February except for Thanksgiving day and Christmas day. She worked on her birthday, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and every weekend. It was the most brutal period of her work career, I think.

But even though she worked on the 4th of July (as a summer associate – before and after a party at a partner’s house), her truth was that she was not trying to avoid something, escape something nor did she have obsessive-compulsive disorder. No, she worked hard because she honestly believed – and lived – that you should put in your best effort at everything.

We’ve all heard and probably said, “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” Anita’s exceptional hard work was born from this idea, and sometimes other things suffered for it: less time with her family, less sleep, more stress, sometimes driving herself mentally bonkers. She strove for a balance but it proved elusive.

It drove her to sleep on the floor of her office. It drove her to a breakdown when she won the moot court competitition in her second year of law school. Eventually it drove her to quit her job with law firms and start her own firm.

In the last 2 1/2 years working from home, she did not (as I thought she would) work less. She worked just as much and I came to the conclusion that this really was just who she was. She was a person who could not, in good conscience, give less than her best to every client, brief, relationship. When she ran out of time, it crushed her not to be working to her potential. But at home she saw the kids off to school, took breaks with me and ate dinner with the family every night. She “balanced” work and family life by making them seamless.

(I did also realize that law firms are designed for lawyers to bill as many hours as possible. Her mentality within that system was not a boon to mental health.)

I’m not sure where she got that saying taped to the wall. I am guessing that she herself wrote it, inspired by something Rick Warren said: “Anything that is pleasing to God is an Act of Worship.”

Maybe this post-it note stuck to her computer explains it better:

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men… Colossians 3:23″

For Anita, the hard work she did, was work for God.