"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1: 1

In the beginning....................... God worked. In six days He created the world.That in itself is an interesting thought, that the God of the universe had to, or chose to, work. So if God worked, there must be some significant meaning behind the idea of work. In our journey to find that meaning, we will look to God's word for our answers.

The scriptures tell us that God is the source of all things, He cares about all nature and mankind, and that He has a purpose for everything. Since work is such a vital part of our life, He must be concerned about the business part of our life as well. Our products and services, the type work we do, and the working environment in which we produce those products and services would all be a part of his making. We will also find that God has something to say about the gifts and skills each of us possess for a given vocation. As we look into his scripture, we will discover that God thought work was worthwhile and that He actually enjoyed his work. Joy, significance, success and personal satisfaction were all a part of the experiences God received in his work.

These facts now cause me to consider if I have that same view of my work and is it intended that I, too, share in these same experiences?  Is the sole purpose of work just to make a living or is there some hidden treasure about work that we are missing? Is work a means to build my identity, self esteem and position in life? If God worked himself, did He intend there to be a spiritual aspect of work? All of us are interested in each of these questions. We all want to build something, accomplish something significant in our life and we all want to be successful. We want to make a difference in this life and in the life to come..  

I suggest that if you asked most people about their view of work, we would come up with a majority opinion that work is a necessary evil. We must note that work was not something God invented to test, tempt or torture us. In fact, work was the very first thing God talked about in his scriptures. I would suppose also that if you asked most of us about work you would find that we can't wait until the day we do not have to work. We would love to win the lottery or lower the age of retirement, therefore, freeing us from this horrible trap of necessity to work. We have the attitude that work is hard and a drudgery. We can't wait until Friday and hate to see Monday come around. For many, the only good work is work that enables us to make a lot of money and makes us feel like somebody.We have concluded that the highest form of work is the most prestigious and the least amount of manual labor.   

These are some of the thoughts we will discuss in our journey. We must remember, not only did God work, but that He taught us a lot about work from his example and in his instructions to us. Oddly enough, when God made the world, He intended for there to be a need to work. The world did not come into existence by itself or some big bang. It to the work of the Creator himself. God had a plan, a purpose and a program for this world and work was a vital part of accomplishing his dream. As we go forward in our journey, we will hopefully see and experience what God had in mind for work in the world he had created.