“I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.” Ecclesiastes 3:12-13
Historians tell us that Rhode Island’s William Ellery was nearly the exact opposite of revolutionaries like Sam Adams; he wasn’t a fiery, silver-tongued orator. In the book, Signing Their Lives Away, he’s referred to as the “clerk” of liberty — he was slow, steady, competent and he wore wire-rimmed glasses on a chunky face. The more famous signers liked Ellery, however, and appreciated his administrative skills and his diligent commitment to the detail work, often accomplished in committee, that a struggle for independence involved. He never wavered despite the time and toil that his service involved. It’s interesting to note that he was also called the “Congressman on Horseback” because he traveled back and forth between Rhode Island and Philadelphia on horseback rather than in carriage. His service to his country didn’t enhance his means to afford such luxury. Ellery was a man with ordered priorities according to Solomon’s creed: “nothing better for people to be happy and to do good while they live.”
Late in life, in his nineties, Ellery wrote something to his grandson that serves as a life lesson for us today. In the letter, he listed all the jobs he had held during his life. Then this:
I have lived “not without many difficulties, but as honestly, thank God, as most men, I have got through the journey of a varied and sometimes anxious life.”
How true. Life is indeed a journey filled with a variety of challenges and many anxious moments, especially in our jobs. But getting through the journey, as Ellery described it, need not be an experience in drudgery. With God, even the most anxious moments in our jobs can be seen as “variety” that in the end brings personal growth and satisfaction. All this, Solomon tells us, is a gift of God.
(For more information on Ellery and the other signers of the Declaration of Independence see “Signing Their Lives Away” by Denise Kiernan, 2009)
