Culture's view on work

It's amazing how much culture influences us in ways that we don't even realize.

As Christians, we're told to watch out for "worldly" ways. We shouldn't gossip, be sexually loose or be financially irresponsible. A lot of what to watch out for, we realize. However, as we start to talk about the importance of work in Sunday school, I am seeing that culture has influenced Christians' view of work without us realizing it.

I think my view of work has boiled down to two things --- working to pay for a good life and dealing with daily work until I can have fun. I always wanted to have a job that I enjoyed --- who doesn't? --- and of course I hoped I'd be somewhere I could make a difference, but I knew the real purpose of work was to pay the bills and hopefully have enough left over to have fun with.

Even work in my free time --- cleaning, laundry, yard work --- just had to be plowed through to get to free time when I could watch TV and relax.

I never considered that God created us to work. It goes all the way back to Genesis, when God created us --- his own work --- and then put man in dominion over everything on his creation. He created us in his image, and that means as a being that works, and then he gave us work to do.

Culture tells us we are supposed to trudge through work to get to play and that retirement and not working is the pinnacle of success. That's not true though. We have to watch out for where culture enters our lives and don't even know it.

Instead of listening to the world and working for the weekend, Christians need to listen to God and start working for him. He created us to work, so how can we find fault in that? Well, we can, but we shouldn't...