Don’t Act Dead

Happy Birthday, it’s March 23, 2024, and this is your day so be happy and rejoice and be glad in it. We were created to work.

Imagine getting the following memorandum from your manager:

Employees in a Detroit business office found the following important notice on the bulletin board: “The management regrets that it has come to their attention that workers dying on the job are failing to fall down. This practice must stop, as it becomes impossible to distinguish between death and the natural movement of the staff. Any employee found dead in an upright position will be dropped from the payroll.” (Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 404.)

Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”  It’s been said, “you get out of it what you put into it.” This is a good principle for your marriage, your job, your faith, your hobbies, your health, and your finances. This list is not all inclusive, but it gives us an idea of what this means. God had called you to specific task (see the list) and you are to do your best to please God in these areas. Looking back at the “memo” we see people have a job, but they are not doing the job, almost as if they are dead at their desk. The management needed to address it and they did it with the memo as a reminder and a warning. God has done the same to believers in James 2:17, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” It’s your birthday, you’re alive, read Colossians 3:23 again and have the best day ever. Happy Birthday!

Mike R

  ’67 / ’83  Jacksonville FL

Doris Jean H

’44 / ’55 Manheim PA