During my childhood, the Army had an ad campaign with a
short jingle that said, “Be all that you can be in the Army.” I think the Army
had a pretty good thing going with that jingle. It really is an inspiring
thought that you can be all that you can be; to think that you can live out
your greatest potential.
Unfortunately, ever since mankind’s fall into sin, we
have been busy trying to be what we cannot be--we have been trying to be just
like God. We’ve been living as if we don’t need his guidance, and we have been
living is if we don’t have the limitations that we truly do have as creatures.
Early on in my recent sabbatical, I read a book by Christopher Ash entitled
“Zeal Without Burnout.” This book discussed what God truly expects of us as his
creatures and it reminds us about our genuine limitations—limitations that we
cannot ignore without paying the price.
In this post, I’m going to discuss some of the thoughts
from that book—thoughts that take us all the way back to why God created us and
the limitations that we have as created beings. These thoughts are seen most
clearly in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, so you may want to briefly read those
chapters before you continue reading this post. In those chapters, we can
clearly see the honorable role that we have been given by God, and the
limitations that we have as creatures.
1. We have the honor of being productive through our
labor
From the time mankind was created, God has given us the
honorable task of laboring in his world. Remember, this task was given before
mankind’s fall into sin, not after. It is not as though Adam and Eve sinned and
then God said, “ I know the perfect consequence! I will make them punch a time
clock for the rest of their puny existence!” No, work itself is not a curse,
just the difficulties that we now encounter in it.
Labor itself truly is an honorable task. It may not be
too much to say that God has intended for us to be co-producers with him in his world. God did
not design his world to come to its greatest fruition apart for mankind. In
Genesis 2:5, we read that vegetation--and perhaps cultivated crops in
particular--had not yet begun to grow because “there was no man to work the
ground.” And remember that God did not drop mankind into a world that was
already filled with things like computers, medicines, and tools. God has
allowed us to discover how to produce such things from the natural resources of
his planet.
So labor is honorable because it makes us co-producers
with God. However, our labor was always meant to be kept in an appropriate
balance!
2. We need rest
In our society, we tend to be over-producers and
over-consumers, and in that crazy cycle, rest often loses out.
If you need just one example of our overproduction, go to
the grocery store sometime and go shopping for cereal or tortilla chips. As you
stroll down the cereal aisle, ask yourself, “How many varieties of Cheerios do
we really need?” You can get plain old Cheerios (the kind with no taste!),
Honey Nut Cheerios, Multigrain Cheerios, or Protein Cheerios. You can get the
designer brand of Cheerios or any one of three other brands that are cheaper
but basically the same thing.
The tortilla chip aisle is even worse! You can get thin
tortilla chips or regular tortilla chips. You can get round tortilla chips or
triangle tortilla chips. You can get tortilla chips that are shaped like little
bowls so your chip dip won’t fall off as you raise it to your mouth. You can
get yellow corn tortilla chips or white corn tortilla chips or blue corn
tortilla chips. You can get tortilla chips that were locally produced or
tortilla chips that were imported from another continent! It takes a tremendous
amount of labor to support the kind of overproduction that we see all around
us.
And to give you just one example of our overconsumption,
consider the fact that Americans today carry $13 trillion of consumer debt.
That number does not include things like medical debt—it includes purchases
over which we have quite a bit of control, like which homes we buy and our
personal possessions.
To maintain our overproduction, we tend to burn the
candle at both ends. But we feel like we have to do so in order to support our
overconsumption! As this crazy cycle rolls along, rest often falls by the
wayside. But we need rest in at least two ways.
A. We need the daily rhythm of evening and morning
in Genesis one, we find the familiar phrase repeated over
and over: “ there was evening and if there was morning.” this phrase was used
to count off each successive day of the creation period.
Since evening is mentioned first in this phrase, the
Jewish people have always considered a new day to begin at sundown. This
perspective on when your day begins shines an interesting light on the balance
between rest and work. If your day begins at sundown, what’s the first thing
you do each day (especially in times and places with no electric lights)? You
rest! You go to bed! Perhaps you first have a meal with your family or some
conversation or recreation with your neighbors, but before you ever get around
to the day’s labor, you rest up for it, because the day’s labor doesn’t begin
for many hours.
This need that we have for rest makes us quite different
from God. Psalm 121:4 says that God does not sleep nor does he slumber. Thus,
he is always awake and alert to watch out for his people. When the prophet
Elijah had his great showdown with the prophets of Baal, he mocked them by
suggesting that there so-called god was asleep and could not hear their
requests!
No, God does not need sleep, but we do. According to the
Centers for Disease Control, adults need 7 or more hours of sleep each day,
children need 9 to 12 hours, and teenagers need 8 to 10 hours. Clearly, in
order to give ourselves the opportunity to get all the sleep we need, we must
exercise some discipline over ourselves and our daily schedules. Certainly
there are seasons of life and circumstances that make this difficult and even
beyond our control, but as far as it is within our power, we need to take steps
to give ourselves the best opportunity to get our daily rest.
If you research this topic at all, you will find
recommendations to maintain a regular daily schedule. This discipline will help
your body know when it is time to unwind to go to bed and when it is time to
gear up to be awake. You will also find a recommendation to stick to a regular
exercise program. Here is part of our balance with labor—we need to work and
exercise our bodies in order to use up our energy. Exercise also helps relieve
physical tension in the body that makes it hard for you to sleep. Experts also
encourage us to avoid caffeine and electronics later in the day so our brains
can begin to wind down.
If we habitually neglect our need for sleep, we are
acting more like God than the creatures that we are. It is inappropriate for us
to act more like him than we truly can be, so we should embrace this limitation
that we have and learn to live within its boundaries.
B. We need regular breaks from the routine
In addition to our need for daily rest, we also need
regular breaks from the routine. This lesson can be taken from the Sabbath day
that is mentioned in Genesis 2:1-3. On that day, God did not rest because he
was tired; He did this to set an example for our benefit. He didn’t wipe his
brow after the sixth day of creation and say, “I really need a siesta! I think
I’ll take tomorrow off!” No, he was setting a pattern for us to follow.
Now in the Old Testament, the Jewish people had some
clear, God-given regulations about resting on the last day of the week. The New
Testament makes it clear that we are not bound by those precise regulations,
but nevertheless, this pattern from the Creation Week still stands. We need to
take a break!
In my opinion, it is wise for us to take a break from
every responsibility that we have. That would obviously include your job, so
don’t neglect your regular time off each week. Whether you have Saturday and
Sunday off or just Sunday or perhaps some other day of the week, don’t neglect
to take that time off! Also, use up all of your vacation days. Even if you
don’t actually go anywhere, just take the time off to get a break from the
routine.
I also think it’s wise for parents to take some time away
from their kids. Go off together as husband and wife and enjoy a date night or
a weekend away. Have those meaningful conversations that always seem to get
interrupted when the kids are around, or that you’re too tired to have at night
after they’ve gone to bed.
Spouses, take some time apart every so often to go out
with the guys or the gals. Men, grab some beef jerky and your golf clubs or
shotguns and go have some fun in the great outdoors. Ladies, grab whatever it
is you like to grab and get together for some heart-to-heart time (with a box
of tissues, of course!).
Take a break from your volunteer and service roles as
well. Faithfulness does not require that you do the same role week after week,
forever and ever, amen! Step out of the routine and rest a little bit. Once
you’ve pulled your nose away from the grindstone, you may look up and discover
that there’s a different need somewhere else for which you are better suited.
3. We need companions
In Genesis 2:18, we find that familiar statement, “It is
not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Do you think that Adams condition was a surprise to God?
Did he say to himself, “Oh my! I told the man to be fruitful and multiply but I
didn’t realize he couldn’t do that without a partner!” No, God made Adam alone
at first for Adam’s benefit, so that he could feel and be convinced of his need
for partner.
The first marriage came to be as a result of God’s next
creative act, but marriage is not the only relationship that can satisfy this
need that we have for companionship. First Corinthians 7 teaches us that
marriage is not a necessary relationship for the Christian. We can glorify God
perfectly well as single people, and even with particular advantages over those
who are married. But even if we may not enter into marriage, we still need
companionship with others.
We are living at a rather fascinating time in western
culture. By “fascinating,” I mean fascinating like a car wreck—you’re horrified
by what you see, but you just can’t look away! Today, we are living through the
logical conclusion of the whole project of western civilization, which has been
to elevate the primacy and importance of the individual. This project has
produced some good fruit, such as a recognition of basic human rights that
should not be violated. But it has also yielded some bad fruit, which I think
we can see right now in such developments as the transgender phenomenon. We are
told today that we are free to make our gender whatever we want it to be and
everyone around us is supposed to fall in line with our proclamation—regardless
of any biological facts about ourselves. That is radical individualism in
action!
So we’ve been on a centuries-long quest to exalt the
individual, and I think we’ve finally arrived at that destination. But we have
found that this destination is a painfully lonely place to be. Many people in
the United States over the last few years have been declaring that we are
facing a “loneliness epidemic.” Even the surgeon general has sounded the alarm
about this condition, quoting research that declares persistent loneliness to
be as bad for your health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day!
We have forgotten this basic limitation that we have as
God’s creatures—we were never meant to live life all alone. We are made in the
image of God, and the Trinity has relationship at its very core. The Trinity
has never needed other beings outside of itself because loving relationship is
part of what it is. We, however, do not possess that same quality as the
Trinity, so we do need other beings outside of ourselves.
We need others for many reasons. For one, we need others
so that we can utilize our spiritual gifts. Have you ever noticed that the
spiritual gifts are social? You can't use them without a relationship with
others! How can you use a gift for teaching if you have no one to teach? How
can you use a gift for serving if you have no one to serve? We really ought to
think of spiritual gifts as gifts that we can give to other people—not capacities
that have been given to us for our own benefit.
We need others so we can spur each other along toward
love and good works (Heb 10) and so we can exchange comfort and encouragement
(2 Cor 1). Think of this like running a long race with a partner. Just as you
start to feel that cramp in your side, your partner is catching her second
wind, so she can set the pace and encourage you to keep going. Then as she
wears down, you’re getting your second wind, so now you can become the one
offering strength.
We need others to share in our joys and sorrows (Rom 12)
and to provide accountability for us (James 5). As we are learning in our
society today, we neglect this need for relationship at our own peril.
We have a great honor to labor in God’s word and serve him,
but we do have some distinct limitations as creatures. If we live as if we don’t
have these limitations, we are acting more like God than is truly appropriate.
So rather than act like we don’t have these limitations, let’s embrace them and
accept them as part of what it means to live out our role in God’s creation.
