1) Work is necessary evil. Do just enough so I never have to work again.
2) Work is the ultimate good to pursue.
We’ll look in depth at these two kinds of extreme approaches to work next week, and how they can damage us, then the next week, we’ll see what good work looks like, and how it ties in with God’s purpose and rhythm for both work and rest.
We saw with the recent devastation in Quebec how disastrous it is when trains go off the rails. They are made to run on rails. The rails are not about restricting their freedom, however. The rails give them freedom – when they hop the rails, they lose all freedom.
God has given some tracks for us. A rhythm of work & rest in a week…a year…and a lifetime.
Work is not a temporary, troublesome virus in our lives, but part of who we are. And the rhythm will help us see that while work is important, it’s not all important.
Balance and rhythm are the way to keep away from those extremes.
Challenge: Draw a continuum between these extremes – work is nothing, everything. Where are you? Where are those you know and work with? Where would you like to be?
Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest
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Today we see why worrying is useless…for us, at least.
We can't make our lives longer. We can actually shorten our lives with worry. The line that Jesus used could even mean making bodies longer…which is definitely not something that happens after adulthood.
God provides in nature - not a direct drop from heaven - but he's readied nature.
UN: The greatest scandal of our age is the fact that just under 1 billion people on the planet go to bed hungry every night. This is despite the fact that we produce more than enough to feed every single person in the world. The problem is not a shortage but rather that the undernourished who need food most cannot access it.
God also provides through others – generosity
God does this in a world where trouble and accidents happen. We will not avoid them. This is not a promise you won’t meet with trouble.
But don’t worry, or become anxious about it. You were made for eternity anyway. Jesus is saying you are much more than that - made for heaven.
Think of a Panda - it eats bamboo almost all the time it's awake. We humans are made for much more than sustenance. In famines, this kind of single focus may be necessary. But this is not the usual condition for us.
More relevantly today in the West, we are meant for more than selfish ambition. We are made for loving, giving, caring, serving.
Question: What has God already put in our world to answer your worry concerns?
