I love to-do lists. Primarily because when I finish a task, I relish crossing it off the list. Sometimes I work on something, finish the task, and realize that I didn’t write it down. No problem! I just write it down and then immediately cross it off. Immensely satisfying.
But why? What makes finishing these tasks so fulfilling? We are working through Genesis 1-11 in our Sunday worship services at NAPC. The first three chapters of Genesis in particular are foundational and indispensable if we want to understand the world around us, the Creator of it, and ourselves. The fundamental goodness of being itself, the privileged place of humans within the chain of being (“in the image of God”), the central human relationship (marriage), what went wrong (sin), and more are found in these three compact chapters. In particular, we read in Genesis that we have work to do:
Genesis 1:28 –And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 2:15 –The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
The first passage is known as the creation mandate, or cultural mandate. From the very beginning, humans are commissioned to have babies, fill the earth, create culture, steward and rule the world. The second passage gives Adam a specific job – to work and keep the garden.
In other words, we have always had more to do than we have time to do it. “Busyness” is not new.
As David Bahnsen argues in his latest book, Full-Time, this mandate to be productive is an undiluted blessing from God, NOT something that we endure until we retire (I have not read the book yet, but listened to him discuss it here).
Bahnsen argues provocatively but persuasively argues that “work is the meaning of life.” He takes exception to the now-commonplace phrase “work life balance.”
“I ask anyone who’s fond of the expression ‘work-life balance’ if they’ve ever used the term in front of their spouse, ‘marriage-life balance.’ Have they ever gone home and said, “Honey, I can’t talk right now. I’m doing marriage-life balance.” The vocabulary, the nomenclature, comes from a specifically anti-workplace understanding that we don’t apply to any other domain of life.”
Bahnsen’s thesis is that productive activity is what imbues our lives with meaning and purpose. Think about it. When do you feel most alive? Days 1 & 2 of vacation are amazing, to be sure. But it seems to me that we are most engaged and absorbed in life when we are using the brains, skills, effort, gifts, and talents God has given us to do things that benefit other people. The reason we feel this way is that we were made to work. Hence, when we work productively, we are satisfied and gratified. Also note that this is a broad definition of productive activity. Employment alone does not define productive activity. Retirement, as is commonly viewed today in America – full-time vacation – is actually a death knell. With nothing to produce, life diminishes. No productivity, no purpose, no joy.
Talking to the young men I disciple, it is clear that when they feel lousy about themselves, it is usually because they are stuck in procrastination or time-wasting (maybe a redundant statement). Conversely, when they are focused on the important tasks at hand, and accomplishing things that matter, they feel great.
Some of you do not like your work. The environment, the culture, the content of the work itself seems to stunt your very soul. This is in part because of the Fall (Genesis 3:17-19). Thorns and thistles are sharp and painful and annoying. But the curse on the ground does not invalidate the purpose and mandate God has given us in being productive. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it.” What he meant was that human nature remains intact after we encounter God’s grace, and is deepened and more itself through the grace of God in Christ. A recently converted farmer, for example, does not spend the crucial weeks of the harvest in 15-hour-a-day prayer sessions because now he is called to “higher things.” Rather, he does his harvesting “as unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:23), giving thanks and being the best farmer he can be in order to benefit his family and community. A corollary of Aquinas’ statement is that sin does not destroy the productive bent of human nature, it just makes it more difficult. If you are in a job you can’t stand, be encouraged – your work matters, and if you are using your gifts and making a strong effort and honoring your employer while maintaining your integrity, you are most certainly fulfilling the productive mandate. Maybe the pain you are feeling is God’s way of getting you out of that and into something more conducive to your gifts. But if not, keep grinding.
We are not primarily consumers. The brands we wear, the cars we drive, the experiences we pay for – these are all fine and can be rightly appreciated and enjoyed if (and only if) they are ordered properly. But they are poor markers of meaning and purpose. We don’t make money to consume products as though consuming were the central meaning of life. No, we are productive humans engaged in tasks that require striving, focusing, sacrificing, laboring and harnessing what God has given us. When we use what we have to good effect, great things happen, and we are useful to the world. Thankfully, God did not create a world where all the work was done. He created well nigh endless raw materials for us to use and shape and transform into things that benefit other people.
When we use what we have to good effect, great things happen, and we are useful to the world. Thankfully, God did not create a world where all the work was done. He created well nigh endless raw materials for us to use and shape and transform into things that benefit other people.
Bahnsen again:
“I am getting this right from the garden, where we see God being a creator and making us to be co-creators, as well as seeing the fact that God did not make the world finished. He made the world with raw materials, and made us to be the co-creators who would go extract the potential from creation. I think this is an incredibly important theological concept, but it’s also fundamentally economic. If you want more economic growth, you need more production, and consumption follows. And of course, production responds to signals that are learned from consumption. And this is a pro-cyclical positive feedback loop understanding of economics. The consumption first theory fails economically. It begs for central planning, but it essentially fails because it is wrong anthropologically. It misunderstands the need of the human person.”
One of our greatest blessings in life is being productive (broadly defined) for the benefit and blessing of people around us. It might be contributing at home by raising your kids, a wildly important and productive role. It might be using the gifts God has given you well into your 70s and 80s to mentor younger people, practice hospitality, and rally others to a great ministry. It might be continuing to use the gifts you’ve been given to work your vocation with increasing excellence over several decades. It might be honing your craft at baking or gardening and sharing these gifts with others in your spare time. It might be, in part, working out and keeping in shape to keep up your productive capacity going for the long haul. It might be serving lonely, hurting people with your gifts of listening and presence. All, broadly speaking, productive work. Whatever it is, “work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).
Pastor David