"Only free, meaningful labor, performed for a purpose that in itself represents an undying value, can be joyful."1
It is a great happiness to have one Goal for a whole lifetime! The path is clear, even if shrouded in mist; you wake up and you go. A Lighthouse burns ahead. Not peace, but certainty, harmony with yourself, and much joyful Labor.
How do you discover your Goal, what you were born for?
Usually, they advise listening to yourself—what brings you the most joy, what makes your heart sing. That is true, just don't compare yourself to others. You cannot live someone else's life. Ignore everything, all conventions, authorities, and other people's Instagrams. Find your Labor. And here is the sole criterion for your choice:
"Consider your labor as co-working with God. Before any task, think: would God bless you for this work or not?"2
There is no higher bliss on Earth than Creativity. Neither sex, nor drugs, nothing compares to the pure joy of Creativity. To create means to transform, to bring forth something new, to build, forgetting everything else in the world. In Creativity, Man is like God.
"Labor is the creative unfolding of man, who, by virtue of his original likeness to God, is given the ability to be a co-creator and co-worker with the Lord."3
"And when you work, do not look at labor merely as a means of enrichment. Perceive in your work the beauty and delight that labor offers as a blessing from God."2
"In Kostanzhoglo (from the second volume of Gogol's 'Dead Souls'), labor is not a duty, but creativity and even co-creation with God, delight, joy. Here is how he speaks about labor: 'You must have a love for labor. You must love the estate, yes! And believe me, it is not at all boring... You go to the mill, you go to the factories, you go to look at the work yard, you go to the peasant to see how he is stirring for himself. For me, simply, if a carpenter handles his axe well, I am ready to stand before him for two hours: the work delights me so. And if you also see that all this is being done with some purpose, how everything around you multiplies and multiplies, yielding fruit and income—I cannot even tell you what happens inside you then. And not because money is growing—money is money—but because all this is the work of your hands; because you see that you are the cause of everything, you are the creator of everything, and from you, as from some magician, abundance and good pour out upon everything. Where will you find equal delight? Here, precisely here, does man imitate God. God reserved the work of creation for Himself as the highest of all delights, and demands from man as well that he should be a similar creator of well-being around himself.'"4
Those were words, but here is what it looks like in real life when a person has found his Goal and labors much and joyfully for it - https://vk.com/video-4604811_456240349
2022-02-20
1 N.N. Fioletov "Essays on Christian Apologetics"
2 Nikolaj Serbsky "The Ten Commandments of God"
3 "The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church"
4 all quotes from this excellent book - S. Sharapov, M. Ulybysheva. "Poverty and Wealth. The Orthodox Ethics of Entrepreneurship"
Dzen: https://dzen.ru/a/aaSziWDsmkdNo0ky
Max: https://max.ru/c/-71578060128503/AZyrY1t2RmM
VK: https://vk.com/@-230141315-9-religiya-truda-ch2
Telegram: https://t.me/LaborGit/15