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Freedom and Responsibility at Work

Audio / Produced by The High Calling

Transcript

An English teacher assigned her students a long essay. The writing project required several weeks and more research than most students had ever done.

One young man asked, "Do we have to do this?"

His teacher smiled. She said, "No, you don't. But you won't pass unless you do."

That's the balance between freedom and responsibility. When a supervisor asks employees to take on a new project, they can say no. When doctors prescribe medicine, their patients can refuse to take it. When consultants offer advice, the company can ignore it.

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. A free society allows us to choose for ourselves. And then . . . we bear the responsibility for choices we make . . . in the high calling of our daily work.

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. (James 4:17)