Dietrich Bonhoeffer: On Work:
“Work plunges men into the world of things. The Christian steps out of the world of the brother encounter into the world of impersonal things, the ‘it’; and this new encounter frees him from objectivity; for the ‘it’ – world is only an instrument in the hand of God for the purification of Christians from all self-centeredness and self-seeking. The work of the world can be done only where a person forgets himself, where he loses himself in a cause, in reality, the task, the ‘it.’ In work the Christian learns to allow himself to be limited by the task, and thus for him the work becomes a remedy against the indolence and sloth of the flesh. The passions of the flesh die in the world of things. But this can happen only where the Christian breaks through the “it” to the “Thou,” which is God, who bids him work and makes that work a means of liberation from himself.
The work does not cease to be work; on the contrary, the hardness and rigor of labor is really sought only by the one who knows what it does for him. The continuing struggle with the ‘it’ remains. But at the same time the break-through is made; the unity of prayer and work, the unity of the day is discovered; for to find, back of the ‘it’ of the day’s work, the ‘Thou,’ which is God, is what Paul calls ‘praying without ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17). Thus the prayer of the Christian reaches beyond its set time and extends in the heart of his work. It includes the whole day, and in doing so, it does not hinder the work; it promotes it, affirms it, and lends it meaning and joy.”*
This word from Bonhoeffer has come at timely moment. A moment when I have seem to have let the “it” overshadow the “Thou,” a time when, without much thought to pray, I have become obsessed with self and forgetful of the others.
* Life Together, p. 70-71