In this modern society where work has become explicitly a mode of life, whether in terms of a “hustle culture” or “getting high on success,” there is a kind of undercurrent in our lives that goes: “Work is a fundamental reality of life, and we have to find happiness and joy in what we do to live out a fulfilled life.” And while it is true that work is an inescapable reality of life, and it is also true that we should find joy in our work, are we subtly sneaking in a complaint that life is ultimately dreary and cries out for a philosophical painkiller? Are we holding this kind of attitude: “Life in God’s created universe was (before the fall) and is (after the fall) always toilsome work, and therefore we must just ‘suck it up’ or ‘deal with it?’ ”

At bottom, this is a discussion about the character of God Himself. Josh McDowell, a Christian apologist who has experienced terrifying abuse as a child (which you can find and read about on your own), ultimately synthesized and processed his experience in light of God’s character as shown in the Bible, and provided this amazingly encouraging and powerful statement: “God is not a harsh taskmaster who simply wants obedience. His instructions in his Word for thinking and acting rightly are for our benefit. He knows that when we live according to his ways, it brings us joy, fulfillment, and meaning in life.”

The work before the fall was never arduous but was given after the full abundance of fruits on trees as food and animals to interact with were given. After the fall, work was cursed with toil, but the “fruits of one’s labor” was still within reach. Real “hopelessness” where one does not even get the fruits of one’s labor was the result of mankind enslaving one another, using one another and even sacrificing one another, whether for actual gain (like freedom weighed against one’s right to live, value in the form of pleasurable services or products etc.), or merely perceived but superstitious gain (like in ancient civilizations, where people sacrificed children to gain knowledge of the future or supernatural powers for themselves from the gods). God is never a harsh taskmaster, but other people are: the ancient line of Cain that used violence to demand subjugation and obtain resources, the Egyptians that enslaved the Hebrew people, the Neo-Babylonian Empire whose religious myths reflected all the justifications for political infighting that happened throughout its history, up to the modern day, where there are fewer large-scale wars but micro-wars spread out among society for one group to gain advantage over other groups.

God is able to reward believers’ toil in faith with the New Heaven and Earth, with the resurrection that is obtainable with a life in union with Christ. But sinful men cannot and will not reward obedience with any comparable good, but will always be laying traps that over-promise a good and under-deliver the promise once someone has signed off his life to them. Once you are trapped in that ultimate toil, then you will have to console yourself tongue-in-cheek again and again: “Well, toil itself is a joy! Busyness is Joy!” But God did not intend it to be that way. He declares through the prophet Isaiah:

Is. 55:1-3 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David."

This transforms our busy-ness here on earth. Just as Edenic work was never comparable to Edenic abundance, the suffering here will never be comparable to the new eternal Eden and the joy therein. We are ultimately living in future Edenic joy, and it is that which makes our great busyness here a small one.

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