What can I say about work? It stinks, but hey, it’s part of life. I love what Red Foreman told his son Eric in That Seventies Show while discussing their jobs. “If work wasn’t work, they wouldn’t call it ‘work.’ They’d call it something else—like super-wonderful, crazy-fun time.”
It didn’t used to be this way, and God didn’t intend for the majority of our lives to be toil. The curse of toil is the result of the Fall. God intended the Garden of Eden, paradise. Work wasn’t work—it was meaningful and joyous. After all, Adam tended the Garden and named the animals.
God has given us hope. “All things work together for good” (Romans 8:28). God’s plan is the restoration of Eden– this is heaven. The Apostle John describes heaven, “On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be a curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him” (Revelation 22:2-3). Unfortunately, we don’t live there yet.
In the meantime, welcome to the jungle, a fallen world of work and toil. As Guns ‘N Roses so eloquently [tongue in cheek compliment] puts it:
In the jungle
Welcome to the jungle
Watch it bring to your kn-kn-knees, knees
I wanna watch you bleed
Dog eat dog. Steal, kill, and destroy. Mr. Burns humorously exemplifies the attitude when he came to speak to Lisa’s class about business during a Simpsons episode, “I’ll keep it short and sweet. Family, religion, friendships—these are the three demons you must slay to become successful in business.” (source) The jungle is in need of a Savior, in need of redemption, in need of reconciliation.
God calls us to work in the jungle. Counter-intuitively, he does not call us to overcome it by devouring threats to become King of the Jungle. [That attitude just leaves us a bunch of baboons.] Nor does he call us to hide from it. He calls us to build the Kingdom, restoring the Garden, bringing heaven to earth, overcoming evil with good. Consider how Jesus did this—coming from heaven to earth, demonstrating that the greatest are the least, giving us life through his death.
What a crazy world he served, one that would take his peaceful Kingdom message and crucify him. Jesus sure knew all about the fallen jungle. Yet his style was to overcome with love rather than repay evil for evil. He served humbly. He embraced the cross, scorning its shame.
In order to do overcome the jungle, we need to reject its lawless principles. For example, we need to reject the world’s suggestion that “success” can be defined monetarily. For, “Better a poor man whose walk is blameless than a rich man whose ways are perverse” (Proverbs 28:6). Integrity must be more valuable than money. We must take a different approach for true success.
God’s precepts work better than the world’s anyway. Remember, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” (Proverbs 16:3). God often blesses his children working in the Jungle in ways which supersede even the world’s definition of success. “Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift from God” (Proverbs 22:1).
Jesus promises that as he has overcome, we will now overcome. Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). All will be made right. Heaven is our hope, reconciliation with God is our hope.
So as you go to work today, welcome to the Jungle. Thorns and thistles await. Pain and hurt, drought and famine, fear and greed, sickness and death. We can hide in fear, we can conform to the ways of the jungle, we can let it bring us to our “kn-kn-knees, knees.” Or we can be strong enough to bring heaven to earth.
We can create a garden in the middle of the jungle. After all, Jesus is Lord of all, even the jungle.