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| Section: Walking In The Faith |
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| Category: Biblical Teaching / Lesson |
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| Working To Get Back To The Garden Part One |
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I want to say right up front: work is work. Whether you drive to your job or are the “keeper at home”, you are working. It is inescapable. The bible says “if a man (or woman) shall not work, neither shall he (or she) eat”. But, working to get back to the garden? What’s that about? Well, let’s get into it, shall we?
As recorded in the Old Testament, God assigned duties to Adam and Eve. Simply put, Adam was to work and Eve was to bear children. Fast forward to the New Testament and we find nothing biblically has changed. Women are still designed to give birth and nurture. Men are still designed to protect and provide. Men and women are both assigned the duty to work. Together, with this in mind, they are to raise children up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” and to “train the child up” in the ways of God. Again, no matter how you look at it: it takes work. But, do we as Christians understand this biblical concept in the face of today’s definition of work?
In the sixties, women were burning their bras and men were growing their hair long. More and more women entered the workplace. At the same time divorce increased to all-time highs, more children were born out of wedlock, and those fortunate enough to be born were becoming wards of the state (daycare, public schools, etc). Mom was told she could have it all; to “bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, etc.” As the saying goes: “you’ve come a long way baby!” But, forty years later, how are we doing? And, what has this done to the original intent set down by God?
The economy today depends mainly on us spending. We consume so that business can produce. We produce to earn money. We earn money so we can spend. As a result, costs keep rising, earnings must keep up, profits need to rise, costs keep rising (you get the picture). Enter the “necessity” of two incomes in order to make ends meet. Sadly, many still see there is “a little month at the end of the paycheck”. We ask: how will we not only “keep up with the Joneses” but also keep what we already have? When I think of this, the question comes to mind, “do we own our possessions or do our possessions own us”? At any rate, ask yourself: is this nothing more than a treadmill we are on? And, if so, how do we get off? In a sense Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young had it right when they sang: “we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden”.
We were exactly where many of you are right now: both working to earn enough to provide a better life for our children (or so we thought). But, after calculating the monetary benefits of my wife working outside the home, it was nearly a wash. The difference did not justify seeing our five year old son standing at the end of the driveway in the dark waiting for a school bus to pick him up and whisk him away to be shaped and molded by complete strangers. So, after much prayer, we gave it to God, and my wife gave her notice. We had seen what the Bible had to say about each of our responsibilities to God, each other and our children and desired to “line up” with His perfect will. We sensed that this was not going to be easy but, nevertheless, wanted to trust His way as being the best way. In part two, I will give our testimony of more than 25 years doing it the biblical way and, hopefully dispense some wisdom gained on how you to can “get back to the garden”. |
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| Date of Submission: 2007-08-28 11:08:55 |
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