Let’s define work not just as a job, career or occupation, but the sum total of everything we do that gives life meaning – ergo taking care of children, siblings and family members is just as much ‘work’ as going to the office. Hard work is certainly praised by the Bible (Proverbs 22:29) and I take delight in exerting the faculties God has bestowed on me – muscle to effect change in the physical, the mind to think and reason, the heart to be touched by His Word – in many varied ways to glorify Him. Work is all around us, in subtle and obvious detail: the heating of the earth by the sun, the uptake of micronutrients by plant rootlets, army ants carrying crumbs into their hiding place. Some of these happen in the quiet of nature, hidden from our eyes; others are more readily observed. I have come to realise that for hard work to be fulfilling, it must also be balanced with rest – real rest. Rest is encoded in our genetic make-up and other patterns seen in nature; it is not an inconvenient interruption but a necessity. After all, God Himself rested after creation (Genesis 2:3).
COMME UN PRO 