Journey To Finding God In Work - From Proprietor to CEO 

"God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it." Genesis 1: 28

How did Jesus go from a carpenter to a King? In the same way, God started out as a sole proprietor and ended up as the CEO of all He had created. We have discovered so far that God not only worked but that He enjoyed his work. It was his intention that we too would work and find enjoyment in whatever He might call each of us to do. We have been given the responsibility to fill the earth with people and to rule (subdue) over all civilization. God owns all the world, but He has placed us with the responsibility to cultivate it under his image.

Ruling the world under his image would require an inner spiritual approach to all we do. There would have to be some kind of blending of our faith with our work. The purpose of work would have, not only a secular purpose of producing products and rendering service, but it would also include the purpose of God. God's purpose would be that all men honor him in all we do and to create a culture that enables all to reach their God given potential and calling. This, I am discovering in my journey, is the path I should pursue in order that I might find significance, success and self satisfaction. This is the path that enables me to find that joy in my work God had originally intended.

Let's go back to the beginning. In Genesis 1: 31, we find that God saw all He had made and that all of it was good. All we have to do is just listen to the words of God and we will find where significance, success, self satisfaction and, ultimately, joy filled God's heart. Was what God did significant? He created the world. Was it successful? Look around. Did He find self satisfaction in his work? "It was very good" And did God find joy in his work? Oh my, did He!!

Let's use our imaginations for a moment. God has just finished the work to create the world. His final act as a proprietor was to create man. He now gives the day to day responsibility to take care of his creation to us with the following instruction: "And the Lord God took the man and placed him in the Garden of Eden to till it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shalt surely die." Genesis 2: 15,16. In other words, we are to work and we are to listen to God. He is now our CEO.

We see further on where God actually walked in the Garden with man while he worked "in the cool of the day."(Genesis 3: 8 ) Can you imagine, actually working along side of God and having him there physically with us. But lets use our imagination further. The world begins to explode with people according to God's instructions. There are needs for housing, transportation, clothing, food, technology and all we see in our world today. But there is one difference; there has been no fall of man, therefore, the world is a perfect place and God is there with all mankind overseeing and fellowshipping with each of us. It is a perfect world. There are no bad products and no lousy service. Greed, corruption, envy, distrust and all the other "thorns" we deal with today do not exist. It is a perfect world filled with significance, success, and self satisfaction. It is a world filled with the joy of living and working in the image of God. It is God's original design.