First, it was Colossians 3:23: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord."
Okay, great. I've been trying to keep that in mind. I guess I've learned my lesson about complaining about my job, right?
WRONG. God has brought something else to my attention about work, and He used a source I wouldn't have expected, personally. Genesis (and the extensive footnotes in Genesis in my ESV Study Bible).
There I was, reading along in Genesis when BAM! Not even two full chapters in, God commands Adam to work and keep the land (in 2:15). I've read that verse a lot of times. A LOT. I've never really thought much of it. But the footnote for that verse brought to my attention the fact that God gave this command BEFORE the fall.
Yeah, so? What does that have to do with ME?
Well, I'll tell you what it has to do with me (and everyone else on Earth). This means that work is NOT a curse. It is NOT a result of the fall or of sin. Work is something God intended for humans to do from the beginning. Crazy, huh? So many of us really don't like work at all. I know I often would rather just do what I feel like doing, not going to a job where I have to do what someone else wants me to do. It's just not as fun as sitting at home in my pajamas all day, watching Disney Channel and working on the various creative (but not really beneficial to society) projects I'd like to finish this summer. But God WANTS us to be productive members of the world. I never really thought of it that way...and I never realized why it's important that work was around even when sin and evil and all that other bad stuff wasn't.
Today, I told my mom about my discovery. She said "Maybe it's our discontentment with work that's a result of the fall, and not work itself."
It was such a simple, nonchalant statement that I didn't really think much about it at first. But now that I have let the idea bounce around in my head I realize that it's SO true. Before the fall, there was no discontentment with work. There was the garden and the animals, and humans were supposed to look after them...and Adam and Eve were okay with that. But now, we humans so easily grow discontent with our lots in life...AS A RESULT OF OUR SINFUL NATURE! That's why we don't like that God has ordained for humans do DO WORK. Maybe that's why so many people are drawn to the lottery and "get rich quick" schemes. We'd rather have money just given to us rather than having to work for a living. Sorry, guys. That's not what God has planned for all of us.
Anyways, I'm starting to get the feeling that God really wants me to learn to be content with where He's put me and what he's given me--especially in the arena of work and jobs. I say that He really wants me to as opposed to just kind of wanting me to because I feel like I've been neglecting to listen for God's voice lately...and yet He is still showing me things. I'm so blessed to have a Creator that pursues me even when I'm not pursuing Him like I should <3
Lemony Snicket Quote of the Day
It is one of life's bitterest truths that bedtime so often arrives just when things are really getting interesting.
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