Matins Devotion: June 25, 2026

Proverbs 31:10-31

The woman Solomon describes in Proverbs 31 may be a housewife or a homemaker, but she is very much not a Real Housewife of Jerusalem, going on endless brunches with friends and creating drama where it doesn’t exist because she’s not accomplishing anything in her life. No, she is gathering food for her household, working with willing hands, making sure she’s not swindled by those in the marketplace. She makes clothing and sells it and has wisdom to give to those who will listen. To care for her family, and to order her household, this woman’s work requires intelligence, sweat and tenacity. 

And in all of this, I think we see why so many people in this world would say that they hate their jobs. While some are lazy and perpetually ill-content, for many others, they don’t mind working hard, and they want to engage their minds while on the clock. So the problem is not that the work is too difficult. It’s that it’s unfulfilling. They spend their days arguing on other people’s behalfs about the price of wool that they’ll never touch. They use their talents and skills to benefit hypothetical people off in the distant universe. They’re unfulfilled because everyone they’re working for is a thousand steps removed from their lives. And it’s much easier to be fulfilled by the labor when the people who benefit from that labor are the children you hold in your aching hands.

Such is the challenge of our modern, internet-connected world. Women and men were designed to find satisfaction in their families and neighbors, not so much in people a trillion miles away. And while I don’t have an easy solution to this problem, God has blessed us to see the love of Christ in the challenge of our unfulfilling labor. When God was a trillion miles away from us in a certain sense, He was not content to be far away. And so, the Son of God who was at a distance became our neighbor. He drew closer. He made Himself our brother. And He did the good work that brought Him fulfillment as it brought us salvation. He gave us the garment of righteousness that He wove not from wool or flax, but with His very blood. He fed us with the feast of His body and blood. He opened His mouth and spoke the greatest utterance of all wisdom, “it is finished,” because those words gave us eternal life.

In the days when your work seems an unbearable, unfulfilling curse, remember those words and they will lead you to the day when you find true fulfillment in the arms of Jesus Christ.