I Choose Joy Because It Is Eternal

A few days ago I read a letter to "Dear Abby" from a reader who was unhappy in his job.  He had always wanted to teach, but felt stuck in a job that did not bring him any sense of accomplishment or fulfillment.  He wondered if it was too late for him to make a career move.  Abby gave him some excellent advice when she suggested that he talk to a career counselor at his community college.   

 

The Bible tells us that we need to work, that we need to provide for ourselves and our families.  Read 1 Timothy 5:8:  "But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." (New King James Version)

 

The Bible also tells us that we should not worry.  Read Matthew 6:25-26:  “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" (New King James Version)

 

At first glance, these two passages might seem to contradict each other -- we are instructed to work to provide for ourselves and our families, but we are also told that God will provide all our needs. 

 

Dig deeper.  Look at the totality of scripture.  The passage in Matthew is not telling us not to work, but not to worry -- about anything!  Not to worry about what we should do for a living, what we should or should not eat, whether we are beautiful or not, what the latest fashions are. . .  These things are fleeting.  God wants us to focus on things that are eternal.  Things like those found in the first chapter of 1 Peter, verses 3 - 6:

• HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
• An incorruptible INHERITANCE in Heaven
• Genuine FAITH
• Inexpressible JOY, all because of
• SALVATION by GRACE

 Then, at the end of that chapter, in verses 24 and 25, the temporal versus the eternal is re-emphasized and summarized: 

All flesh is as grass,
And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
The grass withers,
And its flower falls away,
But the word of the Lord endures forever.

So, back to the letter to "Dear Abby."  Although the writer of the letter didn't say so specifically, it sounds to me like he wants to have a job that produces an everlasting result.  Not everyone can have a career in teaching or in ministry or in medicine, areas that we usually associate with noble, enduring results.  But the career is not the goal.  The result is the goal.  And not all teachers, ministers, and doctors actually produce positive, everlasting results.  But you can produce everlasting results, no matter your career -- whether you are a stay-at-home mom, a CEO, disabled, retired, doctor, lawyer, farmer, truck driver -- whatever position you are in.  The old saying is a good rule to follow, "Bloom where you are planted."  Keep your eyes firmly fixed on God, The Great I Am, the One who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever, ETERNAL Father, and He will produce everlasting results in your life and in the lives of those you touch.

So, this week, join me in praising God, just as Isaiah did in chapter 40:28-31:

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.