Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
-- Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV)
Augustine, City of God:
No man has a right to lead such a life of contemplation as to forget in his own ease the service due to his neighbour; nor has any man a right to be so immersed in active life as to neglect the contemplation of God.
C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity:
Every faculty you have, your power of thinking or of moving your limbs from moment to moment, is given you by God. If you devoted every moment of your whole life exclusively to His service you could not give Him anything that was not in a sense His own already.
John Chrysostom, Homilies:
God helps those who work, not those who are idle. No one helps an inactive person, but one who joins in the labor. The good God himself will bring the work to perfection.
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ:
For a perfect contempt of the world, a fervent desire to excel in virtue, the love of discipline, the painfulness of repentance, readiness to obey, denial of self, submission to any adversity for love of Christ -- these are the things which shall give great confidence of a happy death.
Am I laboring today for the approval of men, or for the Master who sees in secret -- and whose approval alone will endure?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 5:
In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being. Why then am I dissatisfied if I am going to do the things for which I exist and for which I was brought into the world?
St. Clair, MI -- Sunday, July 19
Widespread smoke, mainly before 11am. Sunny, with a high near 76°F. North wind 3 to 8 mph. Tonight: mostly clear, low around 56°F.