And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31 ESV)
Work and Faith
I know two people who are enthusiastic about the idea of work. And I have reason to doubt both of them. For most of us, work is hard. For most of us, work is unpleasant. For most of us work causes physical, emotional, or even spiritual sweat.
Because of this: “cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground. (Genesis 3:17-19 ESV)
Our work now causes us a lot of trouble. Work causes conflict. Work causes pain. Work causes relational difficulties. Work causes confusion. Work causes shortages of time, energy, and resources. All of which are covered under the “sweat of our brow.”
What can we do about it? We usually search for help through more work. We ‘try harder.’ We ‘work smarter, not harder.’ We attach things to our work like community, service, and love. And those can be helpful.
But God gives us something else.
God offers us faith in His Word. He describes work in these terms: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15 ESV) Work was originally something that God gave to Adam… and it was not a bad thing, then. In fact, after describing in detail what keeping the garden meant, God declared that it was very good! (Genesis 1:31 ESV)
Sin wrecked everything. Even work. Especially work.
But way back there in the past, where God created work and gave it as a gift to Adam, it was a good thing. A very good thing. And faith allows us to look way back there and cling to that good thing.
We can choose to have faith in the very good work that God made.
While twisted, tainted, and torn apart by sin’s effects… just like all of creation…just like dolphins, apples, knees, and mountains… work is at its created core, a very good thing.
And in the same way that we see good in dolphins even when they splash us, apples even though they rot, knees even if they hurt, and mountains despite their harsh weather, we can, in faith, see good in work.
We can make work unselfish, because of how it was created. We can make work loving, because of how it was created. We can make work joyful, because of how it was created.
Take the faith God offers.