God Cares About Your Work (Part 2): Created for Labor (Not the Lottery)

“Now we see if I’ll go in tomorrow.” My friend said – only half jesting – as he scratched off one end of the lottery ticket. Disappointedly, he tossed aside the loosing ticket. “I guess I will have to come into work after all.”

This seems to be the pervasive attitude among people today. Work is just something you do until you win the lottery or get Washington to pay your bills. Even many Christians believe that labor is a necessary evil and the result of the Fall. However, the Scriptures would tell us something different. They tell us that work was a part of God’s original, perfect order.

In Genesis 1:28 we read, “God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

Adam and Eve didn’t just sit in the Garden and admire the flowers. God designed them to be productive, giving them a task to do. Likewise, we see that there seems to be a special emphasis placed on the man working in the Garden: “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15)

Men were created to be productive and creative. Some Christians feel guilty because they want to start businesses, climb the corporate latter, fix up their car, do a home improvement project, study art or pursue political advancement. They’re gotten the idea that these things are somehow less spiritual than others. To the contrary, this is what God created you to do!
Adam was made to use his mind and his hands to gain dominion over creation. Likewise, Adam’s sons have always had similar impulses.

While God’s creation was flawless, I believe that He also left it incomplete. In other words, He wanted Adam to take what he’d been given and make it better, more orderly and more useful. Improving what God has given us is an innate part of manhood. Whether it’s our wife, our family, our church, or our broken Ford pickup (if it was a Chevy it wouldn’t be broken), we’re called to better the condition of the things around us.

Thus, if the Bible teaches that we were created to take dominion than Christian men ought to be the most ambitious men alive. We should desire to be the best at what we do, because we’re blessed by God to do exactly that.

But there’s a problem. God’s glorious design of productive manhood had a wrenched thrown into it. Man rebelled against the authority of God and so creation rebelled against the authority of Man. After the Fall, God said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread.” (Genesis 3:17-19)

Now, just like we actively fight God creation now actively fights us. So, no matter how hard you tried you can’t get that pickup to run smoothly, or the garden to grow properly, or that child to behave. Now we find ourselves sweating and laboring just to eke out on existence.

More than that, sin now taints everything that we do. Thus, work that God blessed for the good of mankind is now polluted with greed and selfishness. We’ve turned the blessed gift of God into a means of hurting others and advancing ourselves. Rather than nurturing and improving what we’ve charged with, we abuse, manipulate and use the things in our charge.

But what’s the answer to all this? Should we spot working? Should we suppress that natural desire to gain control and building our little empire? Should the impulses of apathy take control instead?

Some would say yes. They would say that believers shouldn’t try to be the best at what they do because that’s greedy. Well, it certainly can be. We all know of way too many greedy Christians. However, working hard and achieving success isn’t inherently selfish. As we’ll discuss shortly, there’s a way to succeed in a manner that is saturated in benevolence and charity. I’d argue that Christians ought to try to be the best at everything they do to the end that they might glorify God and serve others.

Remember, it wasn’t sin that made work. God made work and sin made it a burden. In the Garden, Adam had God-given power, possessions and pleasure. Thus, pursuing power, possessions and pleasure is not a wicked enterprise. Though, we must be on our guard for our depraved nature corrupts everything we do. However, we can’t refrain from doing something simply because sin might contaminate it. If we were consistent with that principle we couldn’t do anything. Even the most spiritual of activities can become sinful. But I firmly believe that if we, by God’s grace, free our work and “secular” ambitions from sin than it can be a powerful tool in our Father’s hand.

We can be creators without being tyrants; an authority without being authoritarian; a steward without being domineering. Labor is an institution ordained by God and should therefore be carried out with passion and devotion

Butterflies and Growingdown

When did the extraordinary become so ordinary?

I distinctly remember the day when my maturing mind had reached a point where the simple things no longer captivated my attention. I was about ten when one of my siblings came running in from outside, panting and exclaiming over the sighting of a butterfly. Hurriedly, so as not to miss of second of beholding that incarnate wonder called butterfly, my siblings raced outside to take in the six-legged spectacle. And I was left standing in the kitchen wondering what the big deal was.

In five months, I'll be leaving the teenage years forever. I've learned a lot since the day the butterfly ceased to impress me. I've graduated from high school. I'm pursuing higher education. My room is now host to a library that seems to breed like a rabbit. And yet, I feel like the whole thing has been nothing more than a journey to take me back to the place where I marvel at butterflies again. It's as if I'm not growing up so much as I'm growing down.

All my studies and books and projects have led me to a conclusion that seemed self-evident at age six. There's no such thing as "ordinary". All things are beautiful and awe-inspiring because every single thing that exists was created for a cosmic purpose.

C.S. Lewis stated: "Art has no survival value but gives survival value." Human beings are the only creatures who make things simply for the pleasure of making them. The bird makes a nest to keep warm. The ape catches ants with a stick because he's hungry. But human beings building gorgeous cathedrals and painting beautiful paintings and create stirring songs for no other reason than that we get pleasure from them. Where did this irrational artisticness come from?

Speaking of Christ, Paul said that not only were all things created by Him but they were created for Him (Colossians 1:16). Moreover, the Twenty-four Elders in Revelation proclaimed that all things were created for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11). Take a look around you some time. Look at the blades of grass, the grains of sand, the creeping insects, the flying birds, the floating particles of dust. Look at the details, the glamorous markings of a meticulous Artist. All these things were created for the pleasure of Jesus.

Notice His care for the seemingly unimportant things. No one notes nor cares when you smash a bee or kick the sand. But look at the beauty the Artist put into even these insignificant things. These ordinary things. What grand purpose do they have if not to give the Artist pleasure?

Look at every floating speck of dust. To get that tiny speck there are innumerable combinations of molecules which are made up atoms which are made of elections and neutrons and smaller and smaller we go. Scientists keep finding smaller and smaller particles. Trillions of relationships unseen by humans but delightful to God.

Existence itself is just an immeasurable series of distinct persons forming a single substance which than come together to form another single substance. A billion shadows of the Triune Jehovah. Were it not for the existence of an artistic God the universe would be a scary place.

You and I are just snowflakes in a blizzard, unnoticeable amidst a billion other snowflakes. We could melt at any moment and no one would notice the difference. But each snowflake is a unique display of unreplicable beauty that causes the observant heart to soar and fills its Creator with delight.

At the end of the day, getting to be a part of God's blizzard makes being a melting snowflake worth it. We get to be a drop of paint on His canvass; a letter in His novel; a note in His symphony.

Every time we gaze in wonder at what He's made, we are sharing in the pleasures of God. We get to gaze in wonder at the glories of His masterpiece. Like delighted children, we can marvel at the simplest things because they were created for the pleasure of an awesome God. Life is worth it all just to be a part of His beautiful artistry.

When did the ordinary become so extraordinary?

God of the Gardens

My family and I recently returned from a week-long vacation in the Colorado Springs area. It never ceases to amaze me when I see our God use simply things to reveal Himself to us.



In the weeks prior to our vacation I had begun a fairly in-depth study of certain doctrines that don't get a lot of attention. To me, theology is anything but boring. In fact, few things give me a bigger thrill. However, this past week brought me out of the world of textbooks and theories and amerced me in the glory of Almighty God.

In fact, I was doing some writing about theology when I was instructed to pile into the van. Our exploration of the Colorado Springs area began at the Garden of the Gods. I wish I could describe to you the shear beauty of this place. To say it's a bunch of really pretty rocks, doesn't even begin to do it justice.

I felt like a little kid on a playground. I want to climb on every boulder, gaze over every cliff, marvel at all the intriguing beauty of my Daddy's creation. And this was only the beginning.

Throughout the week, I became infatuated with the glory that the Lord has shown us through His creation. I beheld a breathtaking view from the top of Pike's Peak. I watched the wonders of life as we got a close up view of some mule deer. I was taken by the power of a waterfall and fascinated by the intricacy of plants.

It was disturbing to walk into gift shops and see all these postcards and engravings praising 'Mother Nature' and glorifying the gospel of neopaganism. It was saddening to think of these people who were beholding the same wonders I was and yet failed to see the Maker calling them to Himself. Just as the Apostle Paul predicted would happen, these people who had a form of godliness but denied the Power thereof were glorying in the creation and not the Creator.

However, for me, all I could see was the glory of God. But just as I began to marvel at the power of my God, the Lord hit me with another thought. If I was so impressed by the details of this little ball called Earth, just imagine what the coming glory must be like.

I found creation so amazing because it pointed me toward God. But really, all the mountains and waterfalls were just shadows of His awesome glory. As I gazed over the mountain peaks, it gave me chills to contemplate one day being about the see the real deal. The Source of all glory and beauty. The Author of all majesty.

I can't wait.