Working for God

What is work?
Work is all that we do for a purpose. It is the action we take toward the focus of our life. For many people, one’s work is the most fundamental building block to who one is. That at the end of one’s life, people ask about two things—who one’s family was and what one’s work was—and this is what is usually placed on gravestones.

We all work
Some older people complain because “this generation doesn’t work anymore”, or they talk about “bums” who “have never done a lick of work in their life.” The reality is that everyone works, without exception. Only an invalid in both mind and body does no work. Every human is made to do work, to make or create, to work to survive, to labor (Genesis 3:16-19). We can work for many different reasons, but everyone works and everyone wants to work. The one who cannot work is not the lucky one, but the pathetic one—because they are unable to fulfill their created goal. People have different styles of work, and different kinds of work—some are ditch-diggers, while others are poets; some are computer engineers, while others are dumpster divers—but everyone works.

The goal of work
The major difference between what one would call “work” and what another would call “laziness” is for what purpose the work is done. For most Americans, unless one has a forty-hour a week job that provides for a family’s livelihood and a family’s comforts, plus a bit for savings, then one is not truly “working.” Someone could be holding up a sign for change in shame thirty hours a week for a meager living and some little pleasure, but most people would say that they needed to get some “work”. Why? Because they are not working toward the established American goal—a regular wage that sustains and provides creature comforts.

Why work?
At some point in our lives, we need to ask the question, “For what reason am I doing my work?” We recognize that we are working—some how we are making a living, even if we consider that living inadequate. But why are we working? Each of us will have different reasons. Some of us work simply so we can make a living. Some have to have a specific kind of work in order to release themselves from the oppression of debt. Some work because they consider the work itself to be significant—such as politics or teaching children. Some work because they want to provide enough for their family so that they will not feel ashamed. And our satisfaction with our work has everything to do with the reason we are working for. Unless we accomplish our motivation for work, our lives will not have meaning.

The Futility of Work
And, in fact, most people feel that their work has little meaning. Perhaps they are allowing their families to survive, but the work itself is pointless—without honor in and of itself. The Bible also talks about how the work we do is simply futile: “I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind. Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool” Ecclesiastes 2:17-19 The Preacher was frustrated because he saw that his work ultimately led to nothing, and produced nothing significant for himself. And most everyone’s work can be seen this way.
• You may work for your family, and your family may still hate you.
• You may work for comfort, but ultimately all the pleasure is meaningless.
• You may work to better others, but all your efforts could still be fruitless and you may help no one.
• You may work to make a living, but when you’re dead, then you can see that it was pointless.
• You may get yourself out of one debt, only to pile up more and more and more.
In the end, all of the reasons we do work seem meaningless.

Working for God
However, there is one way of working that actually seems significant. A motivation for work that has real meaning—meaning that will be beyond yourself, and beyond your limited life span. That is working for God. This does not mean necessarily working in a church or for a religious group. It means participating in the work that God is already doing. God is the boss, and he is looking for workers—people who will take part in his work on earth. God is the one who tells his workers what to do and how to do it. He provides the resources and the context to work in. And he provides all of the regulations in which the work must be done, otherwise it isn’t his work. But those who participate in His work are working for Him.

The great thing about working for God is that it isn’t pointless. The Bible says, “Everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14) God’s work is significant, and those who assist God will see the work they do last longer than the pyramids of Egypt. For the rest of eternity, they will see their work accomplish amazing things. Perhaps the work itself seems insignificant, but anyone who participates in any part of God’s work gains greater wages than anyone on earth could give. For God’s wages are eternal life and eternal peace—beginning now.

Perhaps the daily wage for God’s work isn’t so great, but the retirement package is fantastic.