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A Christian view of work (part 2)
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We are created for work.
Work, then, is not just a necessary evil that we undergo in order to get to do “what we really want.” That is, if this is how we view work, then we are profoundly confused or corrupted. Rather, we are made for work. It is fundamental to our health and life. Without it, we languish.
It is a result of the fallen and corrupt nature of man that so often we view our work with hostility, distaste, or dread. As if it were antagonistic to our nature and good health. But work, far from doing us any harm, is essential to our well-being. It has been said that a man needs three things in order to live: someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. The “something to do” signifies work. Without work to do, we die of boredom.
How often do we catch ourselves procrastinating some task, viewing it as an imposition, as something that depletes our human potential? How often we look at the pile of laundry, or at the seedlings in need of potting, and wish secretly that the work would somehow do itself, without our involvement. "How nice it would be if the house would clean itself, or the laundry would do itself, or the plants would plant and water themselves," we imagine. It would all be done, and we wouldn’t have to do a thing.
But how wrong-headed! Not only will doing the work not do us any harm whatsoever, it is positively good for us. I need to lay hold of the dirty clothes, restructure them into piles, restructure them further as I separate (rather, the machine separates) the dirt from the garments, then distribute the clean laundry to its proper place (mine, his). Only then can I enjoy having clean clothes again, and enjoy having an unobstructed bedroom floor (as the piles have now disappeared). Work is humanizing. In fact, it is one of the most humanizing things we do. How foolish we are to avoid it so often.
And so, with this in mind, I find I don’t want my tomatoes to plant themselves. I’ll be missing out if they do!
For More Info: Part 1 of the series. Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy and Life Choices by Claar and Clay. Primeval Saints: Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis by James B. Jordan.
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