Work, work, work, work

This QT is inspired by the challenges I've been feeling in my work/life balance. Working at Microsoft is stimulating and exciting, too much so perhaps. I believe Scott Green has had similar challenges. I recall him quoting the 7 dwarves, which also rings true for me: "we dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig ..."

Work themes in the Bible

• Gen 2:2-3. God worked, created the world, and then he took the 7th day off. According to Heb 4:3-4, the 7th day turned out to be longest vacation of all time (i.e., it's still happening :-).
• Gen 2:5,15; 3:23; 4:2,12. God intended for people to work the ground. There is a intimate relationship between people and the earth. The earth does what it does and produces what it produces, but people have the opportunity to shape and accelerate the growth. In some sense, people participate in God's ongoing creative work. Time-lapse photography like this view of our groups new building http://oxblue.com/pro/open/?webPath=microsoft/westcampus give some idea of what coordinated efforts can do (let's hope it has not been built in the spirit of the tower of Babel (Gen 11).
  
• Gen 29-31. Jacob works 20 years: 7 for Leah, 7 for Rachel, and 6 for some flocks/herds. The time passed quickly because of his love for Rachel (Gen 29:20), yet he ended up with Leah at first. The concept of needing to work and prove yourself before your father-in-law will give you his daughter is a very interesting one. With two girls now and one on the way, I don't think it's such a bad idea!
  
  The thing about work is that it makes you feel like you earned it. Jacob effectively stole Laban's flocks by some special knowledge of genetics and animal behavior (Gen 30:37-43). It didn't keep him up at night, though. He felt very justified (Gen 31:38-42) in all he had done to Laban.
  
  Somewhere along the way, Jacob's attitude changes from "I earned this" to gratitude. He prayed to God in Gen 32:9-12, "I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau..."
  
• Ex. 1:13-14, 5:4-18. The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and made them work. When Moses asked Pharaoh to let the people go, Pharaoh just made it harder. To me, this is an example of purposeless work where there is little satisfaction in what one accomplishes. I wonder how the people ate food if they were enslaved? Perhaps the Israelite women had to watch the kids and grow the food, and the men were the ones constructing the pyramids, buildings, etc.
  
  Interestingly, Pharaoh increased the work load to take their minds off any ideas of running away. Work can definitely be an opiate. I can get working so hard that I can't see beyond my survival mode mentality. This is how I operated in college (I can do anything for 10 weeks). After finals, there would typically be a big letdown ("now what do I do with myself?"). I also noticed that while working on the service project in Borneo (1995) that even if I read deep books with the intention to learn a lot, my brain simply couldn't process it because my body was working so hard. Books I consumed on that trip included "The Cost of Discipleship" (Bonhoeffer) and "The Consolation of Philosophy" (Boethius), which aren't exactly light reading.
  
  Returning to these scriptures, it is important to note how miserable the people were, and yet somehow their needs were met as they complained later that the desert didn't have the same types of food. "We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic." (Num 11:4-6)