Last night I spoke to a group of Milligan College seniors, answering questions about work experience, calling and future career choice. There was a mixture of excitement, nervousness and anxiety on their faces as they realized that within a matter of months, each would be making the leap into the workforce. The question was not a matter of if they should or should not get a job, but rather what sort of work and career path may be best suited for their gifts and talents. Future doctors, pastors, entrepreneurs, teachers, business leaders and artists filled the small hall. Yet, none of their inquiring minds asked the fundamental question, “Why do humans work?” Why was work invented in the first place? Most of us will spend over half our lives on the job, so surely there must be more to it than the mere utilitarian need to earn money in order to buy food, clothing and shelter. Is work simply a product of the fall or is there more to it than the curse of Adam?
I believe God gave us the answers way back in the beginning…
“Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food….The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”[i]
Interesting, even before The Fall, Adam worked. According to the story, God grew a garden, placed Adam in that garden and asked him to tend to it, to keep it orderly and to help the garden flourish. Work therefore cannot be a four letter word, but rather a divine character trait of the living God. If He himself is the original worker, if He labored to bring all of creation into being then work itself must be good, and it must have a purpose. In 1670 French philosopher, mathematician and inventor Blaise Pascal wrote, “God instituted prayer in order to lend to His creatures the dignity of causality.”[ii] I believe we can say the same thing for work. In God’s divine goodness, he permits us to cause things to happen, he allows us to create, make, craft and build, just like him. The dignity of causality is a gift which allows us to bring into being things which couldn’t otherwise be done in our power alone, but that can be accomplished through our labor on his behalf. God uses work to share the joy of creating.
Just as important, post-fall, is the need for our work to bring order into chaos. The ground is cursed: thistles now grow in the garden, wheat gives way to thorns and foul weeds choke the barley.[iii] Decay, dissolution and death rule the day, but their destructive work will not prevail. God is at work once again, making all things new! And, due to his grace, we are invited into the process by putting our gifts, talents and abilities to work in the regeneration of creation. We then, as workers together with him[iv], can embrace our work accounting, managing, leading, teaching or building knowing that it is not in vain, but is being put to great use by the original cosmic worker.
For you shall go out with joy, and shall be lead forth in peace; the trees of the field clap their hands to the tune that the mountains sing. Instead of the nettle will be the fir tree, instead of the briar, a myrtle shall be. And this shall be as a memorial to our God, a sign everlasting that won’t be cut off, hallelujah![v]
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