Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
All work is essential: What COVID-19 teaches us about vocation
All work is essential: What COVID-19 teaches us about vocation
Aug 27, 2025 10:04 PM

In the information age, Americans have tended to elevate certain jobs and careers over others, leading to a general resistance to “blue collar” work and an over-glorification of desk jobs, start-ups, and “creative spaces.”

Reinforced by constant cultural calls to “follow our passions” and pursue four-year college degrees, workers have e narrowly focused on a shrinking set of job prospects in sectors like technology, finance, marketing, and activism. Such attitudes have led to an ever-widening skills gap in the trades and service sectors. But at a deeper level, they have diminished our cultural imaginations when es to how we think about the value and dignity of work itself.

Contrary to prevailing cultural assumptions, many of the jobs that we sideline or ridicule as “less lucrative” or “less meaningful” are critical to keeping our civilization running. Amid the pain and destruction of COVID-19, this reality has e increasingly clear, giving us a unique opportunity to realign our perspectives about “meaningful work” and renew our culture’s appreciation for those working and serving across all corners of the economy.

Since the lockdowns of early spring, governments have made a variety of their own distinctions between “essential” and “non-essential” businesses, trying to determine what is necessary for day-to-day survival. States have varied in their individual interpretations, but according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, most have agreed on several key sectors: “critical retail” (e.g., grocery stores, hardware stores, mechanics), “critical trades” (construction workers, electricians, plumbers, etc.), water and wastewater, child care, energy, agriculture and food production, and transportation. Whatever one thinks of such a list – too short, too long, too arbitrary – it provides at least some sort of signal as to how our society currently organizes its priorities.

– last resorts on a longer journey toward a “better life.”

As Victor Davis Hanson explains, such work is far more essential to our economic life than we have tended to see or believe. The pandemic reminds us that we should stop taking it for granted.

He says:

When I see this panic buying and shelves empty from largely urban and suburban shoppers, I ask myself, “Where do they think this es from, that was stocked by people of the lower middle class that worked all night?” It was supplied by truckers who came from packing houses and food processing plants and directly from farms, being worked by people on tractors, farming engineers, hydrologists, farm laborers, farm managers who have not taken one moment off.

What I do, and what an advertiser does, or a high-priced corporate lawyer – a lot of these jobs are not essential to keep us alive one more day. A fracker is. A farmer is. A trucker is. And yet somehow, we have lumped these people in as the losers of globalization. People who are very pensated are doing everything, and they’re essential. I hope people will begin to see that shift in their estimation of what’s important and what’s not.

Of course, a divide in cultural attitudes doesn’t mean a divide in economic organization. These workers help to bring food to our tables and warmth to our houses. In doing so, they contribute to extensive networks of creativity and exchange that weave together the fabric of civilization. These are not isolated workers or industries, operating separately from “white-collar” laborers in “prestigious” vocational paths. In the space between producer and consumer, worker and coworker, business and consumer, we see a diversity of intersecting roles, gifts, and innovations – embodying creativity, wise stewardship, measured risk-taking, and creative service for the love of our neighbor and the glory of God – whatever our neighbor’s status or station.

Thankfully, given our newly heightened awareness, many are finally beginning to hail such workers as heroes and “first responders.” But one wonders how long the celebration will last, and whether our momentary gratitude will translate into our long-term perspectives about which jobs are deemed worthy of our energy, investment, and praise. Yes, these workers are on the “front lines,” but they always were – creating, working, and serving within miraculous supply chains that bring us milk, masks, medicine, and toilet paper. Yes, these workers contribute to untold social and economic flourishing, but they always have. In the years e, we should be careful that do not forget this reality, particularly as we guide future generations into the workforce.

In doing so, however, we must also be careful about treating the government’s narrow and arbitrary categories for “essential work” as some definitive framework. Such distinctions are helpful in highlighting our cultural hypocrisy, but if we follow them too closely, they will lead us into their own ditches of conformity. In acknowledging our lopsided popular perceptions, the lesson is not that so-called “essential work” is somehow greater, more noble, or more meaningful – though there are certainly distinctive elements worthy of praise. To the contrary, it reveals that all work deserves an equal place in our economic imagination.

The real challenge, it would seem, is recognizing the value and dignity of all work, regardless of the particular economic challenges of the day or our personal lists of economic priorities and vocational preferences. Hopefully, the problems of the pandemic will yield a greater understanding and appreciation for the interconnectedness of the modern economy, allowing us to embrace and celebrate all kinds of work – to appreciate all of its essentialness, meaningfulness, plexity.

If our work actually serves our neighbor, it blesses civilization and brings meaning to life.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
President Obama’s Energy Doublespeak
Now meeting the goal of cutting our dependence depends largely on two things: first, finding and producing more oil at home; second, reducing our overall dependence on oil with cleaner alternative fuels and greater efficiency. This begins by continuing to increase America’s oil supply. These were the words spoken by President Obama on March 30 in an address he gave at Georgetown University on America’s energy security. The president also stated in the same speech that “one big area of...
Preview: R&L Interviews Wayne Grudem
In the ing Spring 2011 issue of Religion & Liberty, we are featuring an interview with Wayne Grudem. His new book, Politics According to the Bible, is an essential resource for thinking through political issues in light of Scripture (Zondervan 2010). If you write about faith and politics, this book is a handy resource to have at your disposal. I find myself using it more and more as a resource in my own writing. He is also the author of...
Coptic Bishop: On the Resurrection
The following is a devotional on the meaning of Easter, or Pascha, from Angaelos, General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom. More from Bishop Angaelos may be found on his blog. Also see “Copts e Easter amid hope, fear and determination to fight for rights” on Ahram Online. On the Resurrection Key verses: 1 Peter 4:12-13 As we celebrate memoration of the glorious feast of our Lord’s Resurrection on Sunday, we must never lose sight of...
A Look Back at ‘Spiritual Labor and the Big Spill’
Last summer I wrote mentary titled “Spiritual Labor and the Big Spill.” I made the point that ultimately the kind of spiritual labor that goes on in the Gulf is invaluable. The work done by the fishermen and those working in some other industries along the Gulf is nothing short of a cultural heritage. It is the kind of work that is more than a paycheck and is a superb example of the value of work. I also highlighted the...
Condit: Obamacare rules belie compassion, care
The Detroit News published Dr. Don Condit’s mentary on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) in today’s paper. The ACOs are designed to manage costs under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. Medicare beneficiaries will be “assigned” to 5,000 patient-minimum organizations to coordinate their care. While HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius talks about improvement in care, the politically poisonous truth is that Medicare is going broke and ACOs are designed to save money. The words “rationing” or “treatment...
Report: School-choice advocates cheer Supreme Court ruling in Arizona case
Our Sunday Visitor, the Catholic newspaper, interviewed Acton Research Fellow Kevin Schmiesing for a story about the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that threw out a lawsuit against an Arizona tax-credit program that helps private schools. Here’s mentary from Kevin (the full story is now behind the OSV paywall). Kevin E. Schmiesing, a Catholic historian and research fellow at the Acton Institute, a free-market think tank, agreed that the Supreme Court ruling is a hopeful sign for school choice advocates,...
Commentary: Humility, Prudence, and Earth Day
My contribution to this week’s Acton News & Commentary. Earth Day is Friday. Sign up for Acton’s free weekly email newsletter here. Humility, Prudence, and Earth Day By John Couretas At a World Council of Churches conference last year on the French-Swiss border, much was made of the “likelihood of mass population displacement” driven by climate change and the mass migration of people fleeing zones inundated by rising seas. While the WCC acknowledged that “there are no solid estimates” about...
Opportunity, the Pursuit of Happiness, and Intergenerational Justice
The Roman philosopher Cicero once said to his son, “You are the only man of all men whom I would wish to surpass me in all things.” The form this sentiment takes collectively is a good summation of the universal hope for humankind. We want our children in particular, but also the next generation and the world more generally, to be better off than we are. We want them to surpass us “in all things,” not simply in terms of...
Acton Institute and Kuyper College launch ‘Common Grace,’ a major Abraham Kuyper translation project
The Acton Institute and Kuyper College are partnering to produce a first-ever English translation of Abraham Kuyper’s seminal work Common Grace (De gemeene gratie). The three-volume project will be published through Acton’s recently acquired imprint, Christian’s Library Press, and the first volume is slated to appear in the fall of 2012. More details are appear below and at the Kuyper translation project page. You can sign up at the page to be kept up-to-date as the project progresses. There you...
Messages for Easter
Easter is fast approaching, and in light of this revered day, we take a look at Easter messages the Acton Institute has published in the past. A day celebrated by all Christians, Easter can mean many different things for people. The article, “An Easter Message for Business” explores what it means for entrepreneurs and business men and women. In the article we find that business is a calling and business men and women are called to utilize their Christian principles...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved