On Monday, Martin Luther King Day, I reminded us of Dr. King’s perspective on work with a quote from his famous “Streetsweeper” sermon. It’s worth a read and a listen if you missed it.

Today I want to share a couple of quotes I found in the process of getting my office put back together with the new furniture. Both have to do with work; both have to do with baseball. The first sounds like it came from George Will’s book, Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball, which I’ve read, and if you like baseball, it’s a good read. Here’s the quote I just found:

I loved the game. I loved the competition. But I never had any fun. I never enjoyed it. All hard work. All the time. – Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox outfielder (born, 1939)

Here’s the other quote. It’s hard to believe they’re talking about the same profession:

I ain’t never had a job. I just always played baseball. – Leroy “Satchel” Paige, pitcher, Negro leagues, and the Major Leagues (1906 – 1982). The bio says he played his last professional game (in the minor leagues) in 1966 – do the math, he would have been 60 years old!

It sounds like Satchel Paige found the enjoyment in work that “The Preacher” talked about:

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 5.18, 19, ESV)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3.17, ESV)