Unnatural Toil

Good morning all,

I have been decidedly absent from posting on this blog for quite a while now.  Sure I have posted sermons, but the things that stir my heart and soul, the things of regular posts and even reviews of books and music and the recipes I love have been missing in action.  This morning that absent ends if even for a brief moment because I had a rather intriguing thought chain this morning grown from reading Thomas Merton and having spent yesterday shopping amidst the hoards with Seth.

Thomas commenting on our lack of contemplation and pursuit of work writes, "He may permit that through no fault of our own we may have to work madly and distractedly, due to our sins, and the sins of the society in which we live.  In that case we must tolerate it and make the best of what we cannot avoid.  But let us not be blind to the distinction between sound, healthy work and unnatural toil." 

Merton much like Wesley is a man of Scriptural immersion and so he writes with a certain echo throughout of the narrative of God.  As I read this I could not help but think of the curse placed upon Adam by God after the fall.  The curse that involved us toiling over the ground all of the days of our lives until we return to the very ground that we toil over.  Today I am not a farmer and so I often fail to think of this "toiling" in relation to me, but Merton brought it into clear view this morning. 

"Unnatural toil" is today best described as "life consuming work," work that prevents us from enjoying time with our God, time with our family, time with our friends, time for ourselves.  The modern equivalent of "toiling over the ground" is the constant pursuit of jobs making more money to acquire the stuff we so desire.  We slave away to be able to have that bigger, better car or house; to have nicer clothes or fancier vacations; to collect goofy things like beanie babies or Star Wars toys or Precious Moments which then gather dust on a shelf.  We end up creating a lifestyle for ourselves that is dependent upon that "unnatural toil" and the curse continues.

Adam was toiling in the ground, we are toiling behind a desk, or a cash register, or in a vehicle, or with the tools of our trade in our hands.  Adam's toil was simply to live, to produce the food he and his family needed, our toil is to sustain a lifestyle of material wants to which we have become a slave.  As slaves we no longer have the ability to make good choices for our own lives.  Our children ask, "Daddy, can you play with me; Mommy, can you come to my soccer game; Mom and Dad can we have a family night?" and we respond, "Not now, not tonight, not today, because I have to work, maybe tomorrow."  The problem with being slaves to the toil is that it never ends, we think we will have time for the important things tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes and the time for the important things slips away.

There is a Christian discipline that truly combats this "unnatural toil" in our lives, it is one that we have long ago abandoned, but one which we should truly consider embracing.  It is a discipline that is totally opposite of this weekend, that of "Black Friday."  It is the discipline of simplicity.  Of reducing all of the stuff and clutter of our lives, both material and functional.  No longer do we need storage sheds to store the acquisitions of our "unnatural toil," because we realize those acquisitions are not the master we want to serve.  No longer do we have to spend 60 hours a week working to acquire and suddenly we are free to respond to our children, "YES!"  The master we want to serve is God and the simpler we keep our lives the easier it becomes to serve him.

Paul talks about how it is easier for a single person to serve God because they do not have conflicted priorities and they can always keep God first.  He was acknowledging the reality that when we have spouses and children they demand to compete for our attention and that sometimes God is going to lose out.  We all can understand the truth of this concern, just think how much more true this is when we add more and more conflicting priorities to our lives with our "unnatural toil."  When we choose to simplify, to stop pursuing acquisitions and stuff, to start choosing God and family and friends, to choose having experiences over getting stuff, no longer are we slaves to our lifestyle; suddenly our "unnatural toil" becomes "healthy, fruitful work" that supports the lifestyle we live focused on God and others. 

Let us choose this morning, this Advent season, this moment to transform our lifestyles to ones of work supporting our God and other focused lifestyle from ones that are enslaved by "unnatural toil." 

Your brother in Christ,
Faron