Work and Rest

A couple weeks ago I gave a talk at large group entitled "Why We Rest." My goal was to try to encourage over-caffeinated UNC students to slow down and consider resting as a serious spiritual discipline.

Once I started working on the talk, I realized that not getting rest was only a small part of the problem. If we have a distorted view of work then it will be impossible for us to rest.

So I started by talking about work and then moved to rest. It was one of my classic two-talks-for-the-price-of-one moments. I've continued to think about work and rest since then, so I thought I'd share some of that talk here with my lovely blogger audience:

First, hear this: work is good

In the Biblical story of creation and Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve are created and before anything bad happens, before they eat the forbidden fruit, they are told to work –to work the garden, to eat the fruit and enjoy the place where God has put them.

Work is a good thing. But it is only a good thing in the right context. I’m going to propose a working definition of work for our purposes tonight.

Work: to co-operate with God in using our gifts and abilities to tend to the world he has given us in order to provide for our own needs, bless those around us, and bring forth beauty and life, to the glory of God the Creator.

Okay, so the point of this definition is that work is intended to bless us and those around us as a derivative good. Work is a derivative good, a secondary good.

It can only bless us under the under the umbrella and in its proper place of this co-operative relationship with God in order to point back to the power and goodness of him.