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Posted 6/2/2010

   

The Puritan Work Ethic Naturally Proceeds From a Proper Perspective of Vocation

Today, Tuesday June 1st, has been designated Wear a Dress Day, by a facebook subscriber somewhere in the world. Regardless of the original intent of this person, a quick perusal of the page reveals that modest dress is not necessarily going to be the attire of the day. Glorifying God in appearance is not on the mind of at least some of the few who have jumped on this bandwagon. Wear a Dress Day does, however, indicate a move among some toward a more structured lifestyle.

 Most people living today do not remember when men wore suits to the ball game, and a walk in the park with your sweetheart meant donning a dress. Some will remember when both men and women wore “business attire” to the office every day. Then in the late 70's casual Fridays became the rage in American business. Casual Friday devolved from there to a daily dress code of casual dress.

 As John T. Molloy pointed out in his best selling books, 'Dress For Success', all that casual dress contributed to an organization is a casual work force. Have you ever heard the phrase, 'kids just don't want to work these days'? That is the natural outworking of a generation brought up by a generation that placed fun ahead of work as the major priority in life. In the mind of the casual generation work is merely a means to the end of paying for the entertainment that is what life is all about.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy was good advice for the workaholic, but that malady waned much through the years as entertainment elevated to preeminence. Casual dress was probably more of a symptom of the problem, rather than the cause. Seeing more women wearing a dress, and more men wearing collars, ties and even suits to the office is not necessarily going to cause a resurgence of formal wear. It is more likely the evidence that more people are recognizing the joy of work, or what the Protestant reformers called vocation.

 

Vocation is the theological word for one's calling in life. The Protestant reformers viewed every man's and every woman's work as their calling. Since each individual's calling was worked out by Divine Providence, all callings were equally important as a cog in the apparatus of a Christian society.

 

When one views work as vocation, or a call from God, everything about one's work ethic changes. Every place that the Puritans established themselves after the reformation saw a spike in prosperity. This is the natural product of an attitude that work is our daily sacrifice to the Almighty God. This attitude of respect toward work will manifest itself through more formal attire in the workplace on a daily basis. Facebook's Wear a Dress Day may be a sneaky entrance for some that can grow into a new attitude of the Puritan work ethic. For the more enlightened, the Puritan work ethic will naturally proceed from an understanding of Christian vocation.

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