Drudgery or Delight? By Lisa Burkhardt Worley

After completing my doctoral coursework last month, there was not much time to celebrate. I had to begin work on a 140-page doctoral project, due at the end of 2024 to graduate. The process has gone slower than expected and it takes a day or two to finish five double-spaced pages. However, I realize the key to completing this paper is like any other worthwhile project. It takes discipline and dedicated time.

We often speak about the things God created. He created the Heavens and the Earth. He created male and female. He created love; but he also created work—from the very beginning. In Genesis 2:15, God gives Adam a job of tending the garden. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (NIV). The Hebrew word used here for work is “avodah” and it means work, worship, and service. It is also used by God when he reiterates the importance of refraining from work one day a week by taking a Sabbath. “Six days you shall labor (avodah), but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” Avodah is used 145 times in the Old Testament, so that tells me God sees work and worship as equals.

What if we started to view work as worship? Worshipping instead of working in the yard. Worshipping instead of toiling at a job. Looking at a writing project as an act of worship. It’s amazing what a difference that can make in the enjoyment level of work. Instead of drudgery work becomes a delight!

If we pray through decisions about what jobs or work projects to take on, then we have to believe that God called us to the ones he highlights. So why not worship Him as we complete the tasks? Colossians 3:23 confirms, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

So let’s enjoy the work before us, and worship God as we complete our tasks. Work was never designed to be a burden.