Off-Brand Living: Work

God put Adam and Eve in a garden, not a grocery store.

I’m pretty sure I heard that somewhere, but I cannot for the life of me think where, so I apologize for not citing my sources. Either way, that line has been rolling around my head for several days. 

Let’s think about the garden before the fall. There were trees, plants, streams, and animals. Everything that they needed to live. Now, I am not going to pretend to know what Eden was really like. Nor am I going to pretend to know exactly how sin affected what could have been. Here is what I do know: God’s command to Adam and Eve, to fill the earth and subdue it, required work. He didn’t create a beautiful shopping center complete magical shelves that refilled every time they selected the item they needed or wanted. They had plants that they could eat, and plants that produced something they could eat. They would still have to go pick the fruit and gather the plants. God even gave Adam his first job - name all the animals. Genesis 2:19 says God brought the animals to Adam “to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.” 

I’ve heard it said, and may have even said myself, that the curse for the man was “hard work.” I think we are doing ourselves a disservice to think this way. I think the curse would be better described as “painful work.” If you look at Genesis 3:17-19 is says, 

“And to Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ 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, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’”

God isn’t describing just “hard work.” He’s describing a work which requires a lot of effort for a little fruit. He’s describing work that hurts and requires work (such as clearing thorns and thistles) before you get to the real work (planting and tending your crop.) It speaks not just to the condition of the work, but to the work’s fruitfulness. 

In a world of multiple-lane fast food drive throughs, next day shipping of anything from anywhere, binge-watching all 10 seasons in one weekend, and one click downloads, we can’t loose sight of seedtime and harvest. Sowing and reaping. We can’t buy into the lie that because something is work, it’s bad. Hard work was always part of God’s design. I think He modeled that pretty well by doing the work of creation for six days straight and then resting on the seventh. 

So how do we rid ourselves of the off-brand mindset that hard is bad?  I think Colossians 3:23-24 gives us a great place to start.

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive an inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (ESV)

• Work Heartily

You will notice Paul said “work heartily” and not “stay busy.” There is a glorification of busy in our culture that I think we are finally starting to wake up to, and to that point I say, “Yes and amen.” In our effort to right that wrong, let’s not steer the ship so far in the other direction that we loose sight of genuine sweat equity. Busy work and hard work aren’t the same thing. You might be working hard at something, but not appear to be very busy. On the other hand, you could be going in a million different directions, and not truly putting forth much effort in any of them. All through the Bible, you see word pictures painted to illustrate what God means. Striving with all my might. Do it with all your heart. Bring it into full submission. Your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

These aren’t light, fluffy phrases. These are ideas that will only be fully seen in your life through blood, sweat, and tears so to speak. So forget about being busy, and put your focus on putting in the work. 

• Work Unto God

Sometimes my husband works very late. So late that I know he will drive thru on his way home or skip dinner altogether because it’s very late at night. While I hate missing dinners as a family, there is a saving grace to it. When it’s me and the kids only eating, I phone it in. Hard. You want pancakes and crackers? Sure. Why not? There’s enough left overs for the kids, but not me? No big deal, I’ll eat a bowl of popcorn. The absolute worst moment though is when I’ve expected my husband to be working late, so I’ve served up a delicious meal of cheese, crackers, yogurt and fruit, when suddenly the locked front door starts to swing open. A cold sweat breaks out on my brow, because it can only mean one thing: he got off work early. I’ll start frantically scanning my surroundings. What can I grab to make this into an actual meal and not just survival? Any of my fellow moms hear me on that one?? It’s not because my husband is a hard man, or he’s above eating a hodge-modge meal. It’s because I want my husband to have a nice meal. I want to make him proud. I want to fill him up.  If Paul were a 30-something stay-at-home mom in the modern era, I think he would put it this way: God is always at the dinner table of your life. What do you want to bring to it? Something that took you no effort, or something that cost you something, not in mere dollars and cents but in time and energy to bring it? 

• Work for the Reward

I know. I know. It seems like a very anti-spiritual thing to say. Paul said it first though, so I may be off the hook for this one :) In all seriousness, we have to settle in ourselves that God is a rewarder. Why is that so important? To paraphrase Havilah Cunnington: if we believe the cost is greater than the reward, we will bow to the cost. We need to be convinced that God is a giver of good gifts (James 1:17), and a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6); otherwise we will not put in the effort. The cost will seem bigger than the prize, and we will run out of steam before we even get started. It’s like the games at a carnival or fair. If the prize is a tiny, oddly colored, stiff, stuffed bear with a weird smell, the $15 you spend to toss some rings onto a bottle does not seem worth it. But if it’s the year 2000 and you are a 13 year old girl, and there is a medium sized picture of Justin Timberlake, with his frosted fro and killer smile, and you already know the perfect spot to hang it for optimal staring, the $15 you paid to throw darts at a balloon for even the chance to nab it seems completely worth it. Who cares if you get one less lemon shake-up this year - you got the real prize. God makes it clear throughout Scripture that He gives the best gifts. 

One point of clarification - salvation is not a reward; it is a free gift. You don't work to earn love or acceptance or forgiveness or grace from God. You work because you know you are loved. You work because you know you are accepted. You work because you know you are forgiven. You work because you know you have been given grace.

So let’s work and work heartily. Let’s forget about how full our calendar is or isn’t. Let’s put our hand to the plow and not look back. Let’s do everything unto the Lord. Let’s do it because we know there is a reward at stake. 

What are some ways in your own life that you confuse being busy with working hard? Have there been things you’ve given up on because it was hard or the cost looked like more than the reward? What is one practical step you can take towards hard work today? Let me know your answers or other thoughts in the comments!