Work is Good
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When I was a child my parents spent a huge sum of money to purchase a set of World Book Encyclopedia’s to help my sister and me with our education. As I grew up my parents added other volumes to the set. Little by little they purchased additional books that broadened our horizons and helped us in school.
My children had those same books growing up until we went overseas. then we purchased an entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica on a computer CD. shortly, we had a library of CD’s with information I could never have afforded had they been books. It wasn’t long until we realized that more and more information was being accessed on the internet with its vast resources.
The internet is immense. It carries with it both good and bad information. In its infancy it was like trying to get a drink of water from a fire hose; too much information to filter, but with filters, but with filters complicated research became much easier. In many ways the internet and computers made life too easy. You didn’t have to work and you don’t have to think. Just look it up and your phone and repeat what you read.
What we are living today is not “the dream” we were promised but a nightmare of complexity. We have lost our privacy and possibly our freedom due to technology’s ability to penetrate our homes. The solutions that technology offers are plagued with inherent flaws. It uses more resources, time and energy than it saves. It promotes addictions, facilitates our sinfulness and has managed to frustrate us with its constantly changing technology. We are constantly forced to upgrade, improve and change which is both: expensive and uncomfortable. Books are much more user friendly, and do not require as many upgrades.
The idea of “more is better” isn’t true with the internet age. For the vast wealth of information the internet contains, it also proliferates bad behavior. Consider how biased social media has made us. It has facilitated our minds to be narrowly focused, instantly judgmental and eased our ability to be unusually cruel with out any real consequences. “You can reach out and touch someone” anonymously, and destroy that person’s character with out any real repercussions. This technology takes far more than it gives. The concept of free & easy access to information requires us to reveal an unequaled proportion of our personal identities and our private lives. Easy and convenient isn’t better.
What is my point? Having to work for something is better than having it handed to you. Working for something produces a positive work ethic and an attitude of gratitude. We have lied to ourselves by believing that “we want to give our children more than what we had” but the irony is that in so doing, we have actually given them less of what they really need for life. It is a simple truth, the more you have the more you want. The more we have been given the more we take things for granted. It’s a timeless truth. It was true thousands of years ago for the Israelites and it’s true for us today. The more God gave them the more they took Him for granted and we are repeating the Israelites mistakes.
This generation’s spoiled attitudes are best reflected in their use and dependence on the internet. If it’s easy they want it. If it’s convenient they’ll choose it. If it’s free they will trade their own personal freedom, to have instant access to it. Easy, convenient and free has led many a person to laziness and destruction.
I believe that is why God intended for us to work for things, and earn them. His Love and His Grace He freely gives. It is easy to acquire but He has definitely designed us to work and know the satisfaction of its accomplishment. Adam was placed in Eden with the job of tending it. Eve was created to be his help mate. Their lives were not spent lounging around being unproductive. Scripture teaches that we are to work. Do our best and rejoice in the fruits of our labor. Why? Because we earned it, we will value it and that is what makes it enjoyable. Just think about it.
Your pastor, Dave Rowser
Prayer Request
The Gandy Family, David Minton, Pat & Charlie Martin, Faye Nivens, Jennifer & Gary Chapman, James Crawford, Louise Harrod, Charles Goodson, Joe Byers Family.
Our Missionaries
Paul & Holly Miller – Nephew of Diana Donoho
Christian College Ministry Denver, CO