JOB AND CAREER
Have you ever said this: "If I didnt have to work have to worry about finances my life would be great"? In our culture it has become increasingly fashionable to avoid. In the coming decades, many business forecasters believe the amount of vacation and flex time employers offer will be more attractive to potential employees than the traditional pay and benefits package. All things being equal, the majority of us in the worksplace would choose more leisure time over a higher salary package.
Every day, millions of us play Lotto - a form of goverment-sponsored gambling-in hopes of getting the big payoff so we can quit our jobs and spend the reminder of our lives living for ourselves. We seek that is referred to in layman’s terms as financial independence.
Now making money-even lots of it-isn’t sinful. Paul wrote, "the love of money is a root of all kinds of devil" (1 Tim 6:10 NKJV, italics added). But dosen’t seem ironic that we want to make more while working less?
So why did God allow currency units and job markets to develop along with the stress of paying our bills? In other words, why do we (or at least, most of us) have to work a job? Two reasons: (1) without a job we would become lazy ; and (2) we wouldn’t be forced to live in faith.
Interestingly enough, the punishment for Adam and Eve’s sin sweat, and toil on the job (Gen 3). You can blame the pain of childbirth and the aggravation of working on Adam and Eve!
But perhaps in God’s plan the leisure time Adam and Eve had in the Garden is what actually led them to sin in the first place. As children many of us were told, "An idle mind of devil’s work-shop." Laziness, which is deplored throughtout Scripture, offers us the time to follow our sellfish and sin-prone inclinations. Ultimately, our sins drive us from God’s presence and provision just as it dd Adam and Eve.
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6). But if we had need God, to extend would we be motivated to walk by faith? And how much would we grow in faith? The mountains we are forced to scale in the workplace enable us to grow stronger. Hassling with a job search drives us to our knees because we realize the wrong job can set us back financially as well as provide a hardship we’d rather avoid. Sharing the good news of salvation with coworker in the end strenghthens us as well.
That said, the chance of retiring early beacuse we have achieved financial independence borders on slim to none. But that’s okay. Our jobs present prime oppurtunities for God to work in us and through us.
~ fr the book - "Prayers to move yours mountain".
