January 1 – Reading 1

January 1 – Reading 1

by Chris Rainey | January 1

“HARD WORK OR EASY STREET: THE ALLURE OF THE LIFE OF RILEY”
(Genesis 1:1 – 3:24)

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  – Genesis 2:1-2

Growing up, my grandparents introduced me to a phrase, “the life of Riley.” It means to lead a life of luxury without hard work, which my working-class grandparents — my grandmother was a cafeteria manager and my grandfather was a bricklayer — resented when they saw someone they thought had bypassed the hard work part and did not deserve the leisurely life they lived.

In the ancient world, a common element among pagan religions was the teaching that the gods didn’t work. Instead, the gods made people work so they wouldn’t have to, meaning the ideal life in many places in the world became viewed as a life of leisure with minimal work. Even the gods, it seemed, wanted to live the life of Riley.

In the beginning, we do not see God living the life of Riley. We see a working-class God getting his hands dirty and creating, taking what is formless and void, and basically unorganized, and “forming and filling” the earth. God spent the rest of the creation week filling in the details and organizing the various parts of the world: light, vegetation, land and sea creatures, sun, moon, and stars, and finally human beings. Then God rested on the seventh day. This is God’s pattern: work and rest, a pattern he established for us.

Unlike the ancient gods delegating all work to human beings, the Bible reveals that work is an activity that is shared between God and human beings. God works, and we work. So whether it is cleaning an office or a school, organizing a business’s work-flows, writing a document, building a home, making a meal, or painting the lines on a roadway, these things are part and parcel with the work that God was doing at the beginning. In these activities, we take what is formless and unorganized and transform those things into something that is a blessing to others. This is the blessing of work.

The life of Riley may have its allure, but using our gifts and talents through work — paid or unpaid — is a way to bless others and provide for our own needs.

Let’s Pray…

● That we will have a proper perspective on work and leisure

● That we will see our work as a God-ordained opportunity for service