REFLECTING ON THE HIGH CALLING OF WORK DURING QUARANTINE
“LABOR DAY”, or sometimes referred to as “May Day”, is an international Workers Day celebrated annually to honor the working class and laborers across the world. But today, to some extent, it had also become a day of worldwide PROTESTS and DEMONSTRATIONS against governing authorities. Not surprising because its origin dates back to workers’ revolutions in America complaining about working conditions, long periods of toil and difficult restrictions. In other words, the root of this Labor Day celebration is the struggle of hard labor that people are forced to go through just to “MAKE A LIVING”. And people continue to grumble about it. This is NOT God’s original design. WORK is God’s GIFT to mankind. It is a divine means for us to participate in a CREATIVE and MEANINGFUL way of life that glorifies the Creator and Ruler of the universe. Fashioned by God to provide us with a sense of JOY and FULFILLMENT by POSITIVE CONTRIBUTIONS to the world around us. It is never self-ward. It is out-ward and God-ward. The fruits of success that we gain when we work give a sense of accomplishments resulting in inner satisfaction. This is pleasing to God. The Creator gave us this CREATIVE IMAGE to reflect His glory. This is why Bible Christians see the distinction between LABOR and WORK. Before man’s fall in sin, when everything was perfect and good, man has everything he needs for sustenance and yet God gave him WORK.
GENESIS 2:15-16
“The Lord God took the man and PUT HIM IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN TO WORK IT AND KEEP IT. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden.”
But man chose to REBEL against GOD’S RULE by disobedience when he embraced the deception that he can and should become like God himself. (Genesis 3:4-5). That is a fatal mistake. Trying to LIVE ONLY FOR HIMSELF and RULED BY HIMSELF, God laid upon man and his world the divine curse for this sin.
GENESIS 3:17-19
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.”
From that day on, the joy of satisfying WORK became the painful toil of LABOR. We no longer work as a beautiful testament that we are truly alive, but now, we work just to stay alive. God said, “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of ANXIOUS TOIL” (Psalm 127:2) Man now lives in the drudgery of LABOR as if continually running on a treadmill of ANXIOUS TOIL just to eat and provide for himself or to sustain the unsatisfied quench of his ambitions. For some, the greatest dream is to find meaning, fulfillment, and wealth without work. This too ends in an extremely unsatisfied feeling of meaninglessness. In his old age, the most powerful and richest man of the ancient world confessed this: “So I turned about and gave my heart up to DESPAIR over all the TOIL OF MY LABORS under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:20). Notice his words. “Despair over all the toil of labors UNDER THE SUN”. Only when a man sees his life from the perspective of “above the sun” can he understand the difference between “labor” and ‘work”. One is meaningless and in vain (Eccl. 2:17-24), but the other is A MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION IN GOD’S PURPOSE through FRUITFUL WORK (‘planting’) that results in God’s faithful sustaining goodness (‘reaping’)
2 Corinthians 9: 6,8
The point is this: whoever SOWS sparingly will also REAP sparingly, and whoever SOWS bountifully will also REAP bountifully. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every GOOD WORK.
In a time when millions of people around the world are in quarantine and unable to work, compelling realities will be dominant in our minds. I sincerely believe that God allowed this pandemic to remind our world about this universal truth. For those who live their lives only for necessities and purposes “under the sun” and work only to “make a living”, this will really be a desperate time. Because work is only about survival, they will “not be able to sleep”. And even if the pandemic ends, they will simply go back at the treadmill of toil. Striving desperately until the next calamity. For a Christian it will be different. He has a JOB to do. Whether he is a carpenter or an engineer, a teacher or a preacher, a mother or a manager, his employment is not just an occupation, but a VOCATION. A CALLING. A CONTRIBUTION to life. A SERVICE to God. His ordinary efforts are serving an extraordinary purpose. Heavenly and divine. God, who is “above the sun” is his Master and Keeper. “HE GIVES TO HIS BELOVED SLEEP.”
Brethren, allow this quarantine to be an opportunity to reflect about your work. What is really your purpose? What motivates your efforts? How does it serve the purposes of God for your personal life, family, community and His will? I pray that we will carry a renewed sense of passion and purpose about our work when the time comes that we leave this long quarantine behind.