June 28, 2013
Genesis 3:19 — In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:
I had a good day in the office yesterday. I’m praising The Lord for it because, to be honest, some of the days recently have not been so easy, the going has been uphill. There have been times when I’ve been bothered that I might suffer the fate that 19th century French preacher Adolphe Monod warned of — “Between the great things we cannot do and the small things we will not do, the danger is that we shall do nothing.” But shouldn’t I be expecting it? Sin does not go unpunished. The punishment for Adam’s sin is that work has turned from being a joy, to being a burden. But as I thought about work, and what God told Adam, I realized that there was more to it than I had realized before:
- First, as well as the hardship of labor, The Lord promises to sustain me — “thou shalt eat bread”. Yes, there is work, but there is reward too. His faithfulness is great, and His mercies are new every morning.
- Second, there is work, but the term of the sentence is limited — “till thou return to the ground”. The sentence is limited, and the future is unlimited and full of joy.
As I thought some more about work, it brought me back to think about my recent working days … And about yesterday and its satisfactions. I realized that I continue to draw some satisfaction about continuing to fight uphill, to keep pushing. I realized that the occasional successes provide momentum, but that day-to-day work carries its own reward. Sometimes in my school chapel we would sing a hymn — “New Every Morning” by the 19th century English poet and churchman John keble. I never understood:
“The trivial round, the common task, will furnish all we ought to ask,
room to deny ourselves, a road to bring us daily nearer God.”
But I get it now. Sticking to it is part of God’s plan for us. “Doing the job” is the job He has for me to do. And it’s the same for you — worker, working Mom, Grandparent, “retired” … Or even invalid, suffering through the days … For most of us, for most of the time, the daily round is one of God’s ways of drawing us closer to Him.
When God set Adam to work in the Garden, He gave him a gift. It’s still a gift. I’m grateful. How about you?