The Joy of Work!

This is probably going to be a convoluted mess of a post because this is something that I'm still figuring out in my head.   But this is where I am right now…

Working with special needs kids here is tough... not because of the kids but because of the societal view of these kids and adults.  One could argue accurately that things are better than they were 20 years ago... it seems that more children with special needs are being kept than before (although this kind of data is almost impossible to obtain with any accuracy).  This does not mean that the issues regarding special education are over.  There is a lot more to life than breathing in and out.  Now the fight isn't as much for life (although it does continue to be that) but for qualify of life.  As humans, what do we desire in life?  Is love what we seek?  Acceptance?  Purpose?  All of the above?  Are these pursuits G0d ordained or our human nature?  

When I first thought about what the Bbl says about work, I thought of the curse on Adam... G0d basically sent him out of the garden and cursed him with working the land.  So maybe work is terrible?  Some days it feels like it's cursed... But then I thought of my own experience, while I have days that I don't want to be at work, ultimately I like it.  I went through a brief period of time of being partially employed and almost lost my sanity.  I NEED to work and I LIKE to work and trust me, it's not about the paycheck.  Then I started thinking about the fact that it's moral to work... like the Aesop's fable of the grasshopper... you don't work... you don't eat!  But that doesn't totally fit either because it makes work only a responsibility and not a joy.  While I was thinking about this, I started reading this book by Timothy Keller (someday I'll run out of Keller books and then I don't what I'll read!) called "Every Good Endeavor."  In this book he talks about when G0d created the universe... I'll directly quote him so that I don't mess it up : )   "Why didn’t G0d just name the animals Himself?  After all, in Genesis 1, G0d names things, “calling” the light “day” and the darkness “night”—so He was clearly capable of naming the animals as well.  Yet He invites us to continue His work of developing creation, to develop all the capacities of human and physical nature to build a civilization that glorifies Him.  Through our work we bring order out of chaos, create new entities, exploit the patterns of creation, and interweave the human community.  So whether splicing a gene or doing brain surgery or collecting the rubbish or painting a picture, our work further develops, maintains, or repairs the fabric of the world.  In this way, we connect our work to G0d’s work.”  

WOW!  G0d wants US to be involved in His creation... His beautiful, miraculous creation!  It reminds me of making crafts with kids... You could make something almost flawless on your own but you want that kids to be apart of the artwork.  When they dye the Easter eggs, they mix all of the colors and make an ugly brown egg, when they color they go out of the lines, when they paint the whole room is a mess... BUT you invite them to create with you because you long for them to be part of the process of creation.  Sometimes you end up with something messy, but there is something sweet about their efforts.  Now as humans, we have a lot of brown Easter eggs... unfortunately we are really screwing up His natural creation with pollution etc and His human creation though our injustice, greed, and all other sins.  But we are also using our knowledge, our hearts and our physical bodies to add to His creation.  

So where does my work connect to His?  How do I empower the people that I work with to join in the creation process as was intended? 

One point that I am trying to make while being here is that even if these kids with cognitive or physical disabilities will never have the life that their peers have, let's teach them things, let's give them knowledge, a skill, something to feel proud of.  As I’ve said these things and been looked at like I was a wizardly yak, I’ve wondered …Is this just my Western mentality coming through?  Am I wrong, will this not work here?  After all if they're going to live at home for the rest of their life, what's the point in educating them?  Am I nuts for thinking that their education is worth the extra resources?  My conclusion is that I’m not nuts… at least not for that reason : )

This experience has given me confirmation that as humans we seek to have purpose and that our hearts desire this because G0d has made humans desire this.  This purpose has nothing to do with a paying job, although for some of us our vocation is something that G0d puts on our heart.  Just as G0d has given us the desire to love and be loved (because He is love), He has also created us to seek purpose and use our skills in this broken world.  When I was at an orphng, I thought about this.  One of the little girls has a hip displacement so she can't walk and so doesn't go to school (I can't even open that topic or I'll get mean!).  I was hanging out with her and I took out paper and started drawing pictures on the paper just to amuse her.  Her face lit up and she took the pen from me and wrote two numbers and then showed them to me... when I applauded her, she beamed.  Here is a girl that desires to use a brain that G0d has blessed her with but hasn't been given the opportunity.  How sad.  We started teaching her some basic academic skills.  In a measurable way.... it may do nothing for her : (   She may never make it out of that building and may never have a chance to use any of her new skills (G0d, PLEASE make me a liar and get her out)... BUT in teaching her skills, we allow her to seek after a G0d given desire to think, interact with others and use what little resources that she has.  I pr@y that all of us pursue that internal desire to be creators’ whether it’s in engineering, education, healthcare, farming, the arts, parenting, mentoring, service, advocacy, politics, business, etc. etc. etc.  for we are created by the master of all creators. 


G0d's AMAZING Creation!

 G0d’s creative power through humans : )