September 7: Labor Day

 

September 7:  Labor Day

I was puzzling over the word “retirement.”  The word means to leave or depart, to withdraw or to give up on working.  Should that be our goal in life?  Will we be working in Heaven?  Or will it just be one long worship service, singing hymns for eternity and hob-knobbing with angels in the clouds?  Newsflash!  HEAVEN WILL BE NOTHING BUT ONE LONG PRODUCTIVE, FASCINATING, GOD-GLORIFYING DAY AT WORK!  How do we know?

While the Biblical record does not include detailed descriptions of the life hereafter, we do have one good picture of the perfect world.  It is found in Genesis 1 and 2.  There is every reason to expect that what existed and occurred there provides a template for what the eternal state will be like. 

In Genesis 2:15 we read:  “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”  There you have it.  In a perfect, God-glorifying, stunningly wonderful world, people work.  Why do we struggle with such an idea?

Because we work in a world that isn’t perfect or God-glorifying or stunningly wonderful.  We see glimpses of those things, but the tragedy of the fall into sin is that everything was corrupted and perverted, even our capacity to work and enjoy it.  So, do we just soldier on, bored, frustrated and unfulfilled until Jesus comes back or takes us home?  BTW, that’s a rhetorical question (a question that is not asked in order to receive an answer, but posed to make a point.)

Here is that point.  This life is a dress rehearsal for eternity.  We grow and learn here, being molded and fashioned into the image of Christ.  Our "forever" will be very much impacted by our "now." That is how and why we work.  Aside from all the other considerations, work is there to prepare us for the eternal Labor Day that will be Heaven.  How are you doing?  How is God exalted in your work?  How do you interact with your colleagues?  What is your attitude, and how much do you try and get by with a minimum of effort? How are you working “as unto the Lord?”

I have no idea what the particulars in Heaven will be.  But I know that we will be busy.  We will be laboring.  One of the best ways that we can live out the meaning of the words “your kingdom come, your will be done, on EARTH as it is in Heaven” is by seeing and using our jobs to glorify God.  Begin each workday with this in mind.  Seek God’s face to learn how to do that more effectively and passionately.  How might the world be changed if people everywhere marveled at how differently God’s people behaved at work?