A thought for Labor Day this year: Trust God, pray hard and dream big

Labor Day has become a day of parades, politics and picnics. This day on our national calendar is set aside to recall the poor working conditions of the Industrial Revolution. Those conditions influenced the writings of Upton Sinclair, which brought government leaders to push for child labor laws and eventually bought a day free from labor to remind all that life is more than work. Today Labor Day also marks the mental end of summer and the beginning of fall.

Labor is more than work and toil. It is more than getting next week's paycheck or counting down the days till retirement. Labor is threaded deep within our created nature. Labor, united with the passion to improve oneself, drives and pushes us. Proverbs 16:26 says, "A worker's appetite works for him; his mouth urges him on."

This proverb reminds the reader that appetite, desire and dreams are motivators. A worker's appetite is to create a better life. The history of our nation is rich with men and women who risked name, life and in some cases liberty for a dream. An appetite works for the laborer, for it pushes them past the point of exhaustion to feed the dream that growls within.

Passion must be wed to labor. Passion without any action is stored energy. Passion that never meets any type of labor is like placing a battery on countertop next to a flashlight and expecting the light to turn on. The light will only beam when the energy is placed inside, where it is captured and channeled. Passions and dreams must be met with some type of work plan.

You are the only you anywhere. There is a tremendous freedom that comes when we are able to live our full selves that God has created us to be. Our purpose is not found through fatalistic hope any more than isolated determinism breads success. How many Johnnys and Sallys were told they could be anything they wanted to be and did nothing? God has formed each of his children with a unique personality, individual passions and exclusive abilities.

More time needs to be spent not discovering who we want to be but analyzing who we have been created to be. Trust God, pray hard and dream big.

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father and serves as the associate pastor at the First Baptist Church in Jackson.