Work

Do you like work?

What do you understand by the meaning of work?
Career?
Working in the garden?
Cleaning up the kitchen?
Chores?
Sweat?
Long hours?
What does our society convey in its attitude to work? If you are smart, you can avoid it.
To some it is a swearword.

To those of us who read the Bible, we know the account of Adam and Eve in the blissful Garden of Eden. Then the damned snake messed things up for us and now we have to work by the sweat of the brow. But maybe there’s more to this story than merely this.

Lets have a look. Turn to Genesis chapter 3, verses 14 through 19.
14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

I like to give the whole passage that is related as I hate things to be taken out of context. The passage I want to concentrate on are verses 17 through 19. When God speaks to Adam in verse 17, God says “cursed is the ground for thy sake”. This is interesting, why say for “thy sake”? So the cursing of the ground must be for the benefit of Adam? To eat of earthly produce shall be done “in sorrow” for the whole life of Adam (and all his posterity). The earth shall easily produce weeds, if anyone has ever worked in a garden, isn’t it amazing how quickly weeds develop? So much quicker than the flowers or vegetables ever can.

To work in the ground certainly does require effort. Here in South African conditions, the sun feels particularly fierce to me (maybe my imagination from all the books I read). It is so easy to get sunburned. The newly planted flora needs careful attention with much watering. My one brother pointed something quite noteworthy for the Gauteng Highveld, obvious to gardeners and farmers but not so much to me. In Summer, you water in the evening and in Winter you water in the mornings. To avoid the heat of Summer and the frost of Winter. I never did much gardening previously (my wife will argue still not much change in my behaviour), because if the sun shone, why waste it in the garden when one could be on the golf course? A noble sentiment of a good golfing buddy of mine that I heartily endorse. But the thing I want to point out is that when one spends time in the garden, one feels the serenity of nature. I have really grown to love the common sparrow, they have so much character. When that little plant grows and there is something to harvest or pick, it is so rewarding, isn’t it? But for the lazy the ground is not the place to be, I have known a few farmers in my life and they all work very very hard, from before the sun rises until after it sets. Yet they have a rewarding lifestyle. (I will not go into the appalling risks that white farmers face in South Africa due to the political environment)

Going back to the scriptural passage mentioned above. In verse 19 Adam is told that by the sweat of his face he will eat his daily bread. For a face to sweat, a great deal of effort is implied and required.

So through the ages men and women have had to work, really hard to just survive.

Yet times have changed so much. Modernisation and mechanisation of farms, industrialisation, the rise of the information age, computers and the internet. Concepts such as “networking” have enabled skilled entrepreneurs to accumulate vast sums of wealth where they can “harvest” a portion of the efforts of the subordinate. Access to huge markets also enables this wealth.

The nature of work has also changed for so many. How many people now work behind a desk? How many of us actually ever generate a drop of sweat? (only when in trouble I would imagine). So can work behind a desk for a person like me who is an accountant by profession mean that I too am fulfilling the Divine Mandate of working hard for a living? I would like to answer such a question in the affirmative. My Dad always said that to work with your mind can be tiring too. I wonder if he was just trying to get me away from manual labour because he thought I was smart? I will never know will I?

Yet so many people realise the benefit of a good sweat and getting/keeping fit. Even though their workplace may be sedentary, they go to the gym or play sport in their free time. Health is important.

There are many modern conveniences to ease the burden of housework. Yet financial demands placed on most families mean that the women have to go to work to earn money as well.

Success often comes out of hard work. When I examine the lives of people like Winston Churchill, Jan Smuts, Mahatma Ghandi and Margaret Thatcher (to name but a few), I see people whose capacity to work incredibly hard and unrelentingly gave them an avenue where their sense of destiny could be achieved.

I come from a family where hard work is admired. My wife is such a hard worker and my girls are unrelenting in their study efforts. All their sacrifice and toil is starting to pay off with financial rewards.

However, to me that is not the end or even the ultimate purpose to study so hard. The greatest reward of hard work is the way it changes the worker, added skills are gleaned such as diligence, determination and patience to defer getting the rewards. Does that TV show or that movie have to be seen now? Can we eat the spinach rather than the ice cream? I decided to study further, more than 20 years after getting my degree. I managed to succeed. My reward? Not so obvious, but apart from the normal rewards, who is to say that it didn’t give me sufficient “lift” to win my battle with my spinal tumour?

Maybe I also won that battle because of my faith? Acquired through a lifetime of regular study of the scriptures and trying to improve myself. I gained a reward I never sought. Now I can continue to live with my wife and see my girls progress in life.

The benefits of work are so much more than increased capacity, self-confidence and even admiration of one’s peers; there are areas which we cannot conceive of until the times of challenging circumstances are upon us. Then those abilities rise to requirements that we have need of. I love saying it is when I am “a cornered rat”.

In conclusion then. Work may seem like an unpleasant burden but the very burden is such a great reward. Isn’t a hardworker admirable? Doesn’t a hardworker have so many more skills that the person who just rocks up to work? Who do we go to when we want to get something done?

The answer is obvious.