Do you enjoy your work? God does! Genesis records that at the end of each day of creation, God relaxed and surveyed His creation, and with genuine delight, told Himself how good His creations were. God created because it brought Him joy! He expressed Himself in His creation, and all that He created glorified Him.
G. K. Chesterton, an English writer, theologian, apologist, suggested that God has a childlike excitement out of his work. As a matter of fact, he contended that God may be the only one left in the universe who has childlike emotions about work, while all the rest of us have grown old and cynical due to sin. God never tires of what He does. He enjoys it all!
When Esther, my daughter, was three, I’d throw her into the air, catch her and then throw her again in the air and catch her. And when I set her down on the floor after few times, she’ll say, “Do it again!” I’ll repeat this process dozen times, and she’ll never grow tire of these antics.
G. K. Chesterton believed that God may be that way about creating daisies. He asks us to imagine God creating the first daisy and enjoying it so much, something down inside Him exclaimed, “Do it again!” And when He made the second daisy, He is even more excited and shouts to Himself, “Do it again!” Imagine God continuing to create daisy after daisy, and after making the hundred billionth daisy being even more filled with joy and delight then when He began. God is a God who delights in what He does.
Bible says you and I were created in the image of God who loves His work. John Piper suggests in his book Desiring God that failing to delight in our work is denial of part of what we are supposed to be. Therefore, being like God implies delighting and finding joy in our work.
But you say, “There is no way someone can enjoy what I do. There is no meaning and fulfillment in the work I do.” Really?
There is a story of a factory supervisor. He asked a new worker, “What was it like at your last job?” “It was miserable! I didn’t like the work and the supervisors were unfair to me,” replied the new worker. To which the factory supervisor replied, “Unfortunately, you’ll find it much the same here.”
Few days later another new worker was hired by the factory; and the factory supervisor asked the new worker the exact same question. “What was it like at your last job?” “It was wonderful. The work was interesting, everybody was good to me. The working conditions were ideal,” replied the new worker. To which the factory superior answered, “I’m happy to report that you will find this place as wonderful as the last place where you worked.”
People’s dispositions often determine what they experience. Some people will find reasons to complain even if they were in heaven. There are those who, as John Milton said, “can make a Hell of Heaven.”
How about you? Do you enjoy your work? May you enjoy all that you do. And may you live with passion!
