Labor Day

It's Labor Day in America, the day we "celebrate labor." That, of course, isn't completely true. In the first place, Labor Day was originally instituted as a day we celebrate labor unions. That original intent was subverted to include all labor. But more to the point, do we really celebrate labor?

Most of us think of work as a bad thing. To the average person in America it's a necessary evil. I mean, if we could be rich and stop working entirely, we'd be living the dream, right? Even among Christians it's considered a curse. Literally. "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return" (Gen 3:19). Work was part of God's curse to mankind for Adam's sin. See? Work is not something to be celebrated.

That, of course, isn't completely true. And we should be careful about going there.

If you recall, work was part of God's original design. Adam was given a job long before he fell. "Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name" (Gen 2:19). Quite a task. He told Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Gen 1:28). A long-term job. God intended from the beginning for work to be part of the human experience. And since God only does good, that leads us to conclude that work is good. Adam, then, wasn't cursed with work; he was (ironically) sentenced to hard labor. Work, itself, was not the curse.

"That was then," some might counter. "This is now. We no longer live in Old Testament times. We no longer fall under those conditions." But we know it's still the case today that work is our call. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:10). Work continues to be the positive aim.

Most of what this world does today isn't for the sake of bringing glory to God. (Isn't that an understatement?) However, it might be possible for us to ... steal some of it for God's glory. Like Labor Day. If we have been commissioned to do work for the glory of God (Matt 5:16), then perhaps on a day like "Labor Day" we can celebrate the work that God has given us to do, the work that we are commanded and honored to do. His work. In our labor we have the glorious opportunity to participate with Him and through Him in His work. That is certainly something to celebrate, even while the rest of our people are barbequing and not working in order to celebrate what they consider a necessary evil.