It's Five O'Clock Somewhere

It's five o'clock somewhere! At least every hour on the hour that is true. Alan Jackson's song echoes a theme of the everyday working man and woman this day in time. That theme is "Let's go to the house! ASAP! I need to get this work pressure behind me and get on with real life! 'Pour me something tall and strong,'" as the song goes. It is not hard to see that relaxation, recreation, and entertainment are highly valued in our culture and hard work, responsiblility, repetition, and consistency out the window.

In the series I have been doing with the teenagers at church, I have been addressing some the things that culture has a backwards view on. KROW is one of them. Work is a burden, a distraction, and just flat out holding people back from what they really want to do. But is that the picture of work we see in the Bible?

Here are three quick points from the Bible that teach us about work. I hope they are fruitful for you personally as you fight the same war all believers fight against "the course of this world" (Ephesians 2:2).

1. God created you to work. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." We have the account of God creating all that exists in Genesis Chapter 1. Shortly after, in Genesis chapter 2, we have a "zoom in" (as I like to call it) on the day He created man and woman. One thing we see from that day is that God put the man in the garden He had created earlier (2:8). And verse 15 goes even further to say that God "put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it". One thing we must be careful to remember about this particular passage is, the Fall had not yet happened. This was when the creation and everything in it was still perfect. So, we see that in God's perfect plan for creation, man had a purpose and a job. I don't think it was exactly like what you might think though, because we see the sweat, thorns, and thistles come in later in verses 18-19 of chapter 3. The point is, man worked before the Fall, showing us that work is a good thing.

2. Your health demands you to work. It's no coincidence that there is a higher demand for psychologists and psychiatrists than ever before! There are a great deal of people in America who are unemployed. Some of them are not by choice, but I would say well over half of those are by choice. They probably wouldn't confess that openly but their actions prove otherwise. People who don't work lack purpose, stability, and meaning in their life. This is why many people end up depressed and/or going down roads of alcohol, affairs, drugs, addictions, etc bringing them to the offices of these psychologists. The Proverbs are full of instrucution to avoid idleness, laziness, and not working. My favorite is probably 24:30-34. There are many more. Another strong one is found in 28:19.

Also, not only does our spiritual and emotional health demand us to work, so does our physical health!

3. Your family needs you to work. Paul told Timothy, "if anyone does not provide for his realtives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever" (1 Timothy 5:8). God requires you to take care of others in your family.....simple as that.

Even though there is very little discussion on these points, I hope you can see that the Bible clearly values work and the need for all people to work and have purpose in their life. Hopefully, in the near future I will write the practical side of all this that was part two of the lesson.

As always, your comments are welcome, both positive and negative!

 

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