I was obsessed. I woke up running and did not stop till dark. After school, I put on play clothes and was back outside. Life was adventures, tree climbing, pirates, hide & seek, baseball, bicycles, and more. I BELIEVED in play the way others believed in the Dallas Cowboys. PLAY was my team. I LOVED play and HATED work. Work was the enemy team.
It would be many years before I surrendered.
After Adam sinned, God told Adam he would eat by the sweat of his brow, Genesis 3:18-19. But don’t make the mistake of thinking work is a punishment. It is not. Adam had a job BEFORE he sinned, remember? And every child of Adam has work. Work gives life purpose, joy, fulfillment—your work is your calling, and God made you for it. He made you to work.
WORK IS NOT A PUNISHMENT.
The survivalists competing on the show ALONE prove a truth about work. The work often frustrates them, worries them, drives them crazy. But when they finally have everything set up in a way that will allow them to survive indefinitely—when the hardest work is behind them—they often become homesick and depressed and tap out. The same is true in civilization: studies proved long ago that once men stop working, many have nothing to live for and quickly grow ill and die.
Remember, work is not a punishment.
WORK IS A JOY.
“God causes grass to grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate…. Man goes out to his work and his labor until evening” Psalm 104:14,23.
God makes the grass grow for the animals, but WE must cultivate the crops. And just as nocturnal animals hunt by night, and sleep by day (verses 20-22), God’s plan is that “man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening.”
Dear God, bless our WORK. Help us value it and do our best every single day. Make us thankful for jobs, incomes, challenges, setbacks, coworkers—make us HARD WORKERS with a CHEERFUL DISPOSITION. May we bring light and joy to every workplace we enter.
ΑΩ
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