(Adapted from devotional #7 in the Wisdom Calling devotional series)
If you’re like me, you can go a considerable amount of time without consciously thinking about how your daily work fits into the broader context of your industry or even your geographic region. Or what about how your specific work contributes to society, solves problems, or meets particular needs?
In many ways the answers to these questions are what provide meaning to what we do each day and keep us on mission with our organizational values. What’s key for us to keep in mind, is that not only can our work be a tangible means of worship to the Lord, but can and should be a means of renewal. For this I want to take us back to the beginning of human civilization.
Some 1600 years from the time of Adam, Eve, and the curse from sin, in Genesis chapter five, we’re introduced to the genealogy of a man named Lamech. And Lamech says in Genesis 5:29, “out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.”
That relief or rest was none other than his son Noah. And in Genesis six, we are told that Noah grew to be righteous. He was blameless and it says he walked with God. But Noah and his family were the exceptions because the text also tells us that society at that time was increasingly corrupt, increasingly wicked and violent.
So much so, the text says, God regretted that he created them. God would judge what He had previously pronounced good. And you’re familiar with the story there in Genesis chapter seven, this 40-day flood that was in the works for quite some time. The floods came and Noah entered the ark with just his family.
They were actually in there for almost a year before the waters had gone down. It was a total destruction of plants, animals, and humanity. But in Genesis chapter eight, verse one, the text says, “But God remembered Noah.” Noah and his family were a faithful remnant.
And it’s interesting because God comes to them and gives them this dominion mandate, this cultural mandate to be fruitful and to multiply. It would be a fresh start. The image of God was living on because God was faithful to His covenant.
What’s further interesting to note is the first thing that Noah and his family did when they finally exited the ark after almost an entire year. The text says in Genesis eight, that they worshiped Yahweh. They offered sacrifices of gratitude and sacrifices of consecration. Yahweh promised to never again destroy the earth in that way.
Yahweh would go on to reestablish rhythms in nature. The text talks about different seasons and climates and time periods with day and night, and even different seasons related to agriculture–natural rhythms. They’ve been around for thousands of years. Noah and his family and the work that God gave them of being fruitful and multiplying and exercising dominion over the natural resources was a means of renewal. In fact, the work of their minds and hands each day was a means of renewing the earth, renewing God’s mission to spread His fame and His glory throughout the earth.
So here are four things to consider in light of this passage and this topic of work as renewal. Number one, as our society continues to grow more corrupt, more wicked, more violent, you and I have an opportunity–we have an opportunity to be a faithful remnant in our day, in our culture. I know there might be some that say that society is actually growing less corrupt in different sectors, and they might look at different data points to talk about improvement in our world and in our culture. And in many ways that might be true. If you look at violent crimes, for example, or if you look at the amount of people around the world and abject material poverty. But ultimately, our society in general grows more corrupt, violent, and wicked.
What does faithfulness look like in a culture like ours? Well, faithfulness looks similar today as it did in Noah’s time in the sense that Noah and his family believed God. They took Him at His word. They trusted Him. They obeyed His commandments. So this is an opportunity that we have today as a faithful remnant of God’s people here in our time, in our age.
This is an opportunity for us to resolve in our hearts, resolve in our minds, to simply believe God, to simply trust Him, to simply obey, to seek Him, to rely on His power, that He might give us the courage we need to be faithful, the courage that we need to believe when it seems like no one else is believing.This is an opportunity for you and I to turn from our own wickedness, to turn from our sin, to repent and follow God. So there’s an opportunity for us to be faithful as our society continues to grow more corrupt.
Secondly, our work can be, and I would say should be, a means of renewal. Where there is death and decay, our work can bring life and healing. Where there is confusion, we can bring about clarity. Where there’s chaos, we can bring about order and structure. Where there is a devaluing of human life, we can, through our work, humanize. We can empower. We can lift people up where there is injustice and corruption. We can bring about justice. We can bring about love. We can bring about mercy. And these are ways in which our work, our vocation, our jobs, the time and energy that we put into our businesses can be very tangible means of renewing our society and renewing hearts and lives. Our work can be a means of renewal.
And thirdly, I want us to consider that our work is part of the creator’s world–these rhythms that He instituted so many years ago. And so this is an opportunity for you and I to be reminded as well as encouraged in every transition, every change of season, even the change of climates and the change of night going into day.
These are rhythms that many times we don’t even give a thought to, but they are reminders for us that we are all a meaningful part of the Creator’s world. And the rhythms of working and resting and vacating that we’re in, these seasons to our work and even to our careers are all part of these broader rhythms that God has instituted from the very beginning.
Then fourthly, I want us to think of the great hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”. It was written by a man by the name of Thomas Chisholm, who was born and grew up in Kentucky and ended up in New Jersey later on in his life. Born in the late 1800s and died in 1960.
And he wanted to become a pastor. But after about a year into the ministry, he developed some significant health issues and as a result, he ended up having to leave full time ministry and eventually became a life insurance agent; from the ministry to the professional realm. He’s attributed to writing over 1200 poems and songs. And in 1923, He pinned the words of the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. I want to particularly highlight verse two of that hymn. It reads like this:
Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love
And then the chorus you might be familiar with:
Great is Thy faithfulness
Great is Thy faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me
This hymn is a fitting reminder that in every season, in every time and change, the rhythms that you and I go through with our work and in our careers–they’re all part of the Creator’s world. He has established these rhythms in His quest to use you and I as tangible means of renewing His creation. And so may God give us the grace, the power, and the courage that we need to be faithful in our places of work and spheres of influence.