"We were created to be careful keepers of the place where God puts us, whether that place is ten square feet of assembly line or ten square feet of cubicle or ten thousand square feet of a manufacturing facility. We were also created to enjoy the work we do because we're doing it alongside God."...

..."As Christians, our problems begin when we think we're smarter than God. When we think old rules (the Bible) don't work in new cultures. When we think getting our share of the pie comes before making sure everyone else has enough. When we think the world exists to make us comfortable, happy, and prosperous."...

..."On this side of heaven we work to fix the things our sinful natures broke. We work to fix lives physically, emotionally and spiritually. We work to fix Creation environmentally, economically and spiritually. We work to fix ourselves and our families and the tiny place where God has us laboring."

 

     This incredible gift---the chance to labor shoulder to shoulder with God and to grow intimate with Him in the process---was an active and intentional part of Creation, a blessing bestowed on the "created" by the desire of the Creator to walk and work among us. 

 

     Inevitably, though, we humans have a tendency to break off on our own, and to begin to think we're smarter than God.  Trouble always follows that break from the intended order.

 

     Take, for example, Adam and Eve.  After God created heaven and earth, He assigned Adam and Eve (and us through them) the task of exercising dominion over all of it.  At the beginning, we're told in the Bible of just one rule God made for them:  Don't eat from the tree!  Despite direct contact with the Creator, they allowed themselves to be sold a bill of goods by the serpent. Because they did things their way, they lost their place in the Garden. 

 

      Consider the Israelites, God's chosen people, who, having been miraculously freed from their Egyptian masters, were headed to the land of milk and honey if they just made their journey God's way.   Because they chose not to, they wandered the desert for forty years!  Even mighty Moses fell prey to this all-too-common-human-tendency to stop listening to God and to act on our own instincts or inclinations.  As a result, he lost the privilege of leading his people into the Promised Land.  Saul lost his kingdom for the same reason. 

 

     The Bible records again and again the tales of humans who decide they can do things better than the way God told them to do them.  Human history records the same.

 

     So what will we do this day?

 

     As Christians, God tells us He expects us to be leaders in tending His Creation.  Christians should be on the front end of the culture, leading by example instead of chasing after others.    

 

     But here's the catch.  Unlike the rest of the world, we're not to do it for ourselves, and we're not to do it the way we think it should be done.  For the follower of Jesus Christ, work is not only a means of establishing our identity, providing for our families, or even making a name for ourselves.  No, work for the mature Christian is stewardship, tending Someone else's possessions.  Those other things, especially identity and provision, are fringe benefits of our roles as stewards.

 

     Christians are supposed to earnestly pursue being the best CEO's, the best accountants, the best programmers, or the best janitors because we know the One who designed and started it all.  We have the ability, even the obligation, to stretch ourselves to reach our full capacity in our fields or jobs---even if it's literally a baseball, farm or battle field---when we resist the urge to do things our way and instead allow our lives to be guided by His timeless and unchanging wisdom.

 

     As Christians, our problems begin when we think we're smarter than God.  When we think old rules (the Bible) don't work in new cultures.  When we think getting our share of the pie comes before making sure everyone else has enough.  When we think the world exists to make us comfortable, happy, and prosperous. 

 

     On this side of heaven we work to fix the things our sinful natures broke.  We work to fix lives physically, emotionally and spiritually.  We work to fix Creation environmentally, economically and spiritually.  We work to fix ourselves and our families and the tiny place where God has us laboring. 

 

     We can do that joyfully and sacrificially because we understand that every act of the believer is an act done in the presence of God.  From the beginning, and right up to this moment, God tells those of us who know Him that He expects us to exercise dominion over His Creation.  Not as lords of all we survey, but as caretakers, stewards and humble servants. 

 

     There's room for only one Boss in our lives, and it isn't us.

 

     We must choose to be faithful to His instructions, His ethical standards, His moral precepts, even when "common sense" tells us "we know better these days." 

 

     Christianity is an all-or-nothing proposition: Either we believe God is all-knowing, all-wise and all-trustworthy, and we follow Him meticulously, or we surrender ourselves to the always-fallible, always-harmful path of "doing what seems right in our eyes." 

 

--Randy Kilgore

Randy@madetomatter.org

www.madetomatter.org