Prolong Your Life Through Work!
WORK, especially when it is a pleasure, can prolong life. This has scientific backing. For example, one 15-year study of aging found work satisfaction to be the strongest predictor of longevity. In second place was happiness.
Some years ago, anthropologist Sula Benet made a study of the Abkhasian people of the Soviet Union. The study revealed that, compared to other Soviet citizens, 25 times as many Abkhasians lived to be 90 or older. How did she explain her findings? She wrote: “Both the Soviet medical profession and the Abkhasians agree that their work habits have a great deal to do with their longevity.”
People who continue working throughout life have a better chance of living longer. In the long run, those of retirement age who devote much time to travel and hobbies do not find them totally satisfying. Why? Because these activities are not work that produces “something of value for other people.” Only by doing things for others—to the extent that health and circumstances permit—can our satisfaction be maintained.
The ability of work to prolong life, of course, is limited. Sooner or later, regardless of how satisfying our work may have been, death eventually comes. But there is another kind of work, the doing of which holds the promise of prolonging life eternally! Is that really possible? What kind of work could it be?
The Most Pleasant and Rewarding Work
God’s Word, the Bible, says at 1 John 2:17: “The world is passing away . . ., but he that does the will of God remains forever.” Yes, it is the doing of God’s will that can prolong life into all eternity. Today this doing of his will would include following the apostle Paul’s counsel to Timothy: “Make the preaching of the Good News your life’s work, in thoroughgoing service.”—2 Timothy 4:5, The Jerusalem Bible (Catholic).
Today a very significant part of the “Good News” is this: God’s Kingdom, for which Christians have long prayed, has now been established in the heavens. It is presently gathering subjects together here on earth and is preparing them to survive the end of Satan’s wicked system of things.—Matthew 6:10; Daniel 2:44.
Could there be anything more pleasant and rewarding than spending time telling others about this marvelous hope? Many thousands of Jehovah’s Witnesses would answer, No. That is why they endeavor to make it their “life’s work,” the most important activity in their life.
They have benefited greatly by doing this. First of all, the joy and gratification that it brings help to counterbalance the unpleasant features of other kinds of work they must do. This helps the Witnesses to maintain a happy spirit regardless of their secular working conditions.
The good news also holds promise of life in God’s new system, where all work will be a pleasure. They hope to participate in a fulfillment of these prophetic words: “They will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat their fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are the offspring made up of the chosen ones of Jehovah, and their descendants with them.”—Isaiah 65:21-23.
Are you worried about man’s polluting of the environment? Then you would undoubtedly enjoy helping transform the earth into a global Paradise. Are you concerned about disappearing animal species or with man’s mistreatment of animals? Then you would most likely enjoy helping to care for these lower creatures in a loving way. Are you worried about the future of today’s children? Then you would enjoy rearing children under righteous conditions.
The doing of such joyful work in Jehovah God’s new system of things could by no means be called a nightmare. And if you take positive steps now so that you can participate in that grand work, you will surely find it to be far more than just a dream.
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In God’s new system all work will be a pleasure