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Ivan's standard
'Then you will understand what is right and just and fair.' PROVERBS 2:9
It's really hard to keep working hard at school or college, day after day when you've exams and starting work can seem so far away! It's when you're bored, in your worst lessons, learning about things you don't care about that you get a really good chance to develop your character. In those times you can mess about, write notes, cause trouble or work hard anyway!
There's a prize-winner Russian novel called 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'. The hero of the story is a prisoner in a Siberian labour camp. He's forced to build a wall in freezing cold weather. As it gets darker and colder the foreman gives the order to hurry the job by throwing leftover mortar over the wall. But Ivan was determined to finish the job right.
Eight years in a prison camp couldn't change his nature. Ivan was one of those people who wouldn't let anything go to waste without good reason. Eventually the foreman shouted at him and left him to it. Even in the dark, with the temperature at minus 20C, Ivan kept working. Only when he was sure that the wall was totally straight and even did he stop working. So, measured by Ivan's standard, what's your attitude to your work? Are you a fair-weather worker or will you keep going even when it gets tough?
written by Bob Gass
