Do you go to work on any given day and find yourself struggling through it? Do you feel as though this “job” is pointless or difficult or just a struggle? Do you find yourself checking the time frequently hoping that the time will pass faster so that you can just “get out of here”? Most of the people that I talk to go to work and really don’t like it. Some of them say, “I just can’t wait until I retire.” There have been very few that liked their occupation – and I mean VERY few.
Work has been given to us from the very beginning. Man was created, not only for relationship, but to “keep the garden”, which is maintenance and working. Then the fall happened, and man was put out of the garden and told to work the ground. We were given a job. Many of us were given jobs to provide for our families, whether it be in or out of the home. A lot of stay-at-home parents are unacknowledged for their work that they put into day in and day out for their families. Society exalts those who work for financial provision, and it overlooks those who actively work providing in other ways that are non-monetary.
I was speaking to a man that works outside the home. He stated in the beginning of current job that his fulfillment comes from helping people make major purchases. He had stated that he asked God would send him people to help. Since then, his outlook has reverted to “a job”. He no longer finds fulfillment and joy in helping others find the best way of getting what they want at a financially feasible way. The predominant focus of his day to day tasks is the pay that he will receive on his paycheck. At home, his rebuttal in the debate with his wife on why he does not attribute to home maintenance is, “I work all day. I just want to come home and finally relax.” And it is true. It is hard to push yourself all of the time. He just wants to come to his wife physically and just rest.
Now, his wife works at home as rearing the children, cleaning the home, doing laundry, discipling women in the faith, studying for and leading a Bible study for women, among other things. This is something she finds difficult to do physically due to some health conditions, but she pushes through that focusing on the end results. The end results being that her family is well cared for physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and the women she pours into are cared for emotionally and spiritually. She struggles physically in her ailments and emotionally as she empties herself without receiving the emotional support she needs. She just wants to come to her husband emotionally and just rest.
In Deuteronomy 16, the people of God were told to enjoy the feasts that the Lord commanded of them to observe. He tells us why in verse 15. It says:
For seven days, you shall keep the feast of the Lord your God at the place that the LORD will choose, because the LORD your God will bless you in all your produce and in all the work of your hands, so that you will be altogether joyful.
He gives us commands these feasts because He knows that if we do not have it commanded, some will overwork focusing on the harvest (paycheck) rather than God who blessed us with it. We will become wearied in the work with very little fulfillment. The harvest does not give us joy; God gives us joy and fulfillment. And notice how this is a feast for everyone to participate in. He created us for relationship, friendship. And at the end of this verse, He says, “so that you will be altogether joyful.” Altogether joyful. We cannot enjoy ‘altogether’ in isolation.
God has blessed us with the growth of the harvest. Or in modern-day terms, He has blessed us with the increase in our finances by the paycheck we receive. Yes. We work for whatever payment we receive. However, it is because of God that we are physically and mentally able to work for each other.
Some do not receive a financial paycheck. Some receive payment in the form of emotional support. God allows for that as well. Yes. We may work for that, but like I said before, it is because of God that we are physically and mentally able to work for each other.
This all came about when I read Ecclesiastes 8:15. It says:
And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.
In context, the previous verse was telling the people that sometimes not so good things are rewarded to righteous people, and sometimes good things are rewarded to wicked people. When we work diligently, we may not always get what we expected in the life God gave us “under the sun”. And when we are lazy, we may be given worldly rewards that one would think the hard-working person should get. But here “under the sun”, meaning before sin is purged from the earth and the upside-down, backwards-ness of this world is righted, we must remain hard-working, but remembering to joy in God and all that He has given us.
In our day to day work, we must seek the joy that can only be found in God. We must hold on to His joy if we are to continue in His strength. He gave us His Only Son for us to close the gap that we had made between us and God. That gap that we diligently continually try to fill will our efforts can only be filled by God Himself. I see an illustration in my head of a gap. On one side of the gap is where we stand, and on the other side of the gap stands God and His perfection. Each time we throw something into the gap to try to close it, it lands at the bottom barely making a dent in filling it. Then each time we do something against God’s commands, the gap widens a touch thereby making what we put into the gap of no help. However, in Christ, there is no longer a gap.
God gave us joy in Christ. We can look in eager anticipation to the other side of the former gap, the portion that Christ filled, and see Him. We can continue walking toward Him, working as we go in joy and peace. He gives us joy even in our work. We can come to Him physically AND emotionally and just rest…altogether. We can find joy in our work by looking to Jesus.
Gotta go fill up my cup…..
Coffee with Candee 