WEDNESDAY AUGUST 14
“Do you see a man
skilled in his work? He will serve before
kings.”
Pr 22:29 NIV
HAVE A WORK ETHIC GOD CAN BLESS
Journalist William Zinsser’s first job was writing for The
New York Herald Tribune. Traditionally "cub” reporters often start by
writing obituaries, but Zinsser was frustrated with his assignment. "I
could be doing Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporting,” he thought to
himself, "and I’m stuck writing obituaries.” Finally he worked up enough
courage to ask his editor, "When am I going to get some decent story
assignments?” His crusty old editor growled at him and said, "Listen, kid,
nothing you write will ever get read as carefully as what you are writing right
now. You misspell a name, you mess up a date, and a family will be hurt. But
you do justice to somebody’s grandmother or somebody’s mom, you make a life sing,
and they will be grateful forever. They will put your words in laminate.”
"Things changed. I pledged I would make the extra calls,” Zinsser said.
"I would ask the extra questions. I would go the extra mile.” That is
essentially from the Sermon on the Mount—write obituaries for others as you
would want others to write an obituary for you—obituaries that deserve to be
laminated—because someday, somebody will. Zinsser eventually moved on to other
kinds of writing, including a book on writing itself that has sold more than a
million copies. But none of it would have happened if he had not devoted
himself to obituaries. Understand this: if you cannot experience the spirit in
the work you are doing today, then you cannot experience the spirit today at
all.
Taken from the Word for You Today devotional
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