What is
Leisure?
There is no music in a "rest" but there's the making of music in it. And people are always missing that part of the life melody.
— John Ruskin
When we asked ourselves, in chapter 1, the question "Why Work?" we began by suggesting that as Christians, particularly Christian executives, we were long overdue for a close look at work. "Now," you ask, "What about leisure? Yes, indeed... what about it?" "Pray tell," the "harried" executive pleads in mock surprise, "will someone show me some?"
What about executives who talk leisure as if it were some dim and distant promised land... who speak of it in yearning terms as if it were to be highly sought after though virtually unattainable? Do they really want it? Do
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they know what it is? Could they put it into meaningful use if they had it? Many observers believe that most executives answer these questions in the negative.
If this were not so, why haven't they taken it? Why hasn't the group which has wrung the highest monetary rewards from the economic system... the one group which could have more leisure time if it wanted it... why hasn't this group arranged to have it?
WHY EXECUTIVES CHOOSE LONG HOURS
What begins to seem obvious, though who would state it so bluntly, is that executives work long hours by choice! Clarence Randall had little patience with the poor, harried, overworked manager:
Pity the overworked executive! Behind the paperwork ramparts, he struggles bravely with a seemingly superhuman load of responsibilities. Burdened with impossible assignments, beset by constant emergencies, he never has a chance to get organized. Pity him — but recognize him for the dangerous liability that he is.1
Randall views as self-appointed martyrs, these Horatios, who are convinced of their pivotal responsibility, their sacrificial effort, their monumental contribution to the organization. Almost every organization has them. You will know them by their messy desks (too busy to straighten it)... by papers strewn in disarray (all important papers come to this desk)... by the hasty sandwich brought in by a harried secretary (too much can go wrong if a manager this important is away from the office too long)... by the bulging briefcase lugged out the door after everyone else has gone (who knows, some late worker might see it and rejoice that someone cares enough about the work to worry about it after hours).. by the quick kiss for the wife or husband upon late arrival home and the query, "Why isn't
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dinner ready?" (important people must never be kept waiting) ... by the unopened briefcase lugged back in the morning (late enough to be seen by those who missed it the night before)... by that vacation he or she "hasn't taken in fifteen years" (how grateful to "old faithful" the directors must be — what other chair in the office has been warmed so uninterruptedly over so long a period of time?) ... by the rushing off on urgent trips (a phone call might offend the receiver of so important a message)... by the endless list of routine tasks (who would think of delegating when there is just no one who could do them quite as well?)... by the chronic late arrival at conferences (with an air of preoccupation suggesting how generous this manager is to take time for lesser matters) ... by the inability associated with the gargantuan task he or she stands astride.
"Leisure time?" you ask. Oh yes, leisure time. Perhaps we'd better back up a bit. Can the harried executive we're just described possibly have a meaningful "philosophy of work"? If such executives had no philosophy of work, could they possibly have a philosophy of leisure? If work, as Dorothy Sayers proposes, is not the thing one does to live, but is rather the thing one lives to do, we find here our springboard to an understanding of leisure.
Executives, and Christian executives without a doubt, live to work. The combination of commitment, dedication, and opportunity to serve God and fellowman provides tremendous motivation. Even more than other executives, Christians find the lines between work and leisure blurred. The executive enjoys a freedom to come and go not enjoyed by clerical, office, and shop workers. The executive self-schedules... enjoys lunch with others of his or her choosing for purposes of business, to be sure, but enjoyable nonetheless. The freedom to move where the
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action is... to delegate to others... to contemplate the future... to plan to take advantage of opportunity... to see dreams come true... this is work? Indeed. This, for many, is also leisure — the optimum fulfillment of the heart's desire when God's hand reveals itself throughout.
All of this, according to Sebastian de Grazia,2 is why executives choose long hours, and are therefore less to be pitied than we think. If executives realized the extent to which work is interlaced with qualities normally associated with voluntary, carefree, and social pursuits, they would feel less sorry for themselves.
But the Christian executive has a built-in rationalization since normally underfinanced endeavors cannot afford adequate staffs. No better excuse has been found for overwork than lack of adequate staff. The reader is cautioned to review what the real reason or reasons for this situation may be. The distinct possibility has now been raised that, in fact, you may not be so overworked as you would like to think — and that if you are, it may well be because you want it that way. Should either of these possibilities be true, think of the tension which can be avoided by a simple reminder of the fact! Martyrdom that is self-invited somehow does seem less respectable.
What then of leisure? If work is God-ordained... if it is what we live to do... then leisure acquires a purposefulness of its own. It becomes a time of self-renewal, of recreation of our energies and talents and capabilities for the joyful pursuit of what we are called to do... be it Christian or secular.
At a time when the "great American dream" is catapulting our nation down the primrose path of abundance... of electronic accessories... of undreamed timesavers, which cost money, which must be paid for by money which takes more time to earn... philosophies are asking
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if we know where we are going. Do we appreciate the difference between leisure and free time? Are we even capable of using leisure in a meaningful way if we had it?
Among the compulsions that drive busy executives must surely be this gnawing uncertainty about what to do with leisure. With all of the guilt complexes Christians have constructed, one or two must apply to use of leisure time. Is it Christian, for instance, to loaf? How does this great American pastime fit into a philosophy of the stewardship of time?
We've agreed that each of us has all the time there is, and that it all came as a gift from God. If it's God's time we're dealing with, what then of leisure? The perspective seems a bit clearer. We are here for His purposes... we are doing the task He ordained for us... our leisure belongs to Him... and, amazingly, He is more available to us than busy executives are.
Executives are hard to see;
Their costly time I may not waste;
I make appointments nervously
And talk to them in haste.
But at any time of night or day,
In places suitable or odd,
I seek and get without delay
An interview with God.
— Anonymous3
Leisure for God's purposes seems much more meaningful than leisure for the sake of leisure. It aids us in our concept of managing our time. Harried managers may now see more reason to break the stranglehold of their habits... when a vacation with the family, postponed for fives years, can be viewed as God's plan not only for the family's sake but also for the manager. An opportunity for active participation in a civic undertaking for which he or she is
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suited may make the manager far more effective on the job. A change of pace, while expending effort in a new direction, can be wonderfully refreshing, particularly for desk-bound executives. And for Christians, the question of whether the "hurried state" is God-imposed or man-imposed may well be worth reflecting upon. "Our heavenly Father," observes Charles Shedd, "never gives us too much to do. Men will. We assign ourselves an overload, but never the Lord. He knows what He wants from each of us, and there is plenty of time in His day for things essential to His plan. We do Him a grave injustice when we fall into the habit of compulsive overwork. We sin when we pressure out of His wishes assignments that have not been filtered through divine judgment. Self-centered scheduling that wants it our way, and ours alone, is far different from setting up a plan with the Inner Presence as our guide."4
With this returning thought of keeping our lives Christ-centered, time enough to do all things seems certain, and the question of leisure time yields itself to the commitment of being true stewards of all His time. And what a promise for the time-harried, worry-laden executive who thus claims the promise of Jesus: "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:11).
REFERENCES:
1. Randal, Clarence B., The Folklore of Management, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1961
2. de Grazia, Sebastian, Of Time, Work and Leisure, Twentieth Century Fund, New York, 1962
3. Shedd, Charles, W., Time for All Things, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1962
4. Ibid.
