Unless it’s Yahweh building the house,
The work is pointless.
Unless it’s Yahweh protecting the city,
The security guards might as well go home.
What’s the point of getting up early
Or staying up late,
Working hard for the wage
Of working hard again the next day?
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 127, page 297)
When my oldest son was two-years-old, I struggled to find work and finally found a job framing houses. So every morning, I’d get up and pull on my work clothes and boots. I’d put on my yellow rain slicker (we were living in Seattle after all) and grab my tool belt and circular saw. And my son did the same, with his own boots and slicker, toy tool belt and toy circular saw. While I saw my job as something to barely keep my family afloat, he saw it as magical. He wanted with all his heart to join me in what I was doing.
God is a worker. He makes things and fixes things (which is what creation and salvation are all about.). But he doesn’t do them alone. Like the good Father he is, he invites his children to join him in the work he’s doing in the world. Sure, he could do it all himself. But he takes joy in having us participate in his work with him. Another way to say the word “disciple” is “apprentice.” And we are in apprenticeship to God.
Too often, however, we get things backward. We think we need to get God to join us in our work, rather than joining God in his work. It’s no wonder we get this backward, since work is one of the most God-like things we do as we impose our wills on the world around us. But a simple look at the Hebrew way of counting time disabuses us of our power grab.
The Bible begins with God at work, creating the heavens and the earth. Humans don’t even show up till the sixth day — talk about showing up late! But even before that we see how days are divided: “And there was evening and there was morning …” The day starts as the sun goes down and as we head to bed. The first thing you and I do each day is go to sleep. Meanwhile, God is at work. So when we rise in the morning, we shouldn’t say, “God, I’ve got a million things to do today, please bless them.” Instead, we should say, “God, you’ve been working while I’ve been sleeping. Thank you for inviting me to join you in the work you’re doing. I don’t want to mess up anything you’ve been working on, so please give me good eyes to see what you’ve been doing so I can join in instead of disrupting your good work.”
The way we pray about our work changes everything. This isn’t drudgery. This is participation. God is doing something in the world and we get the privilege of joining him in doing it, even in what we do for work, even when that work isn’t even remotely “spiritual” or church related. Paul offered this same perspective to those whose work was compelled from them in slavery: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Col. 3:23-24). Yes, even those compelled to work can somehow join God in what he is doing, knowing our real wages come from him ultimately.
And so we join in the prayer Moses prayed at the end of Psalm 90:
Smile lovingly on us, Lord our God.
And give us good and meaningful work to do.
Yes, give us good and meaningful work to do.
(Everyday Psalms, Psalm 90, page 211)
Prayer: Thank you for the gift of meaningful work to do, Lord. There are times I want to quit. But you have invited me to join you in what you’re doing in the world, making and fixing people and things. I am honored that you would let me get in on what you’re doing, risking that I might mess things up in the process. So bless my work for I am blessed to do it with and for you. In Jesus. Amen.