day 223: Tending and Caring

One of the first accounts of work that we see in the Bible is when God placed Adam in the Garden of Eden to keep and till the earth. The New Living Testament says in Genesis 2:15: "The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and care for it". God, the creator, made us in His image so by nature we are creators and then God said, it's not good enough to just create and leave something, whatever is created must then be watched over, cared for, and tended to ensure that the creation is fulfilled to its original vision. So many times in work we want to create something but we don't want to do the downstream work that needs to happen to make the creation worthwhile. One of the companies where I worked was "well-known" for having huge marketing ideas that would best the rest of the industry over and over, but when it came time to execute against those marketing initiatives the organization would bore and tire and the ideas would never fully become operational, thus leaving millions of dollars wasted. It was a pattern in that company because the CEO wasn't that interested in tending and caring for the ideas once the big idea had been launched. Don't we all have some of that in us? Isn't it easier to start something new than to fully finish what has already been started? There are lots of starters in the work place and many few less finishers. But God is giving us the example and the direction in what he asks Adam to do. He is telling us that it is not good enough to just start, but that we need to be strong finishers as well. Paul, in the New Testament, says this over and over to us using the race analogy and our need to finish the race well. God gives each of us bodies and minds to do work. He has given each of us the desire to create and he has said that we have to be told to follow-through to tend and care for our creations. We each have been given many things at work to tend and care for. If we were to do so with the acceptance and joy that like God gave Adam the garden; as if God has given us our tasks to care and tend, then how much more fulfilling would our day, today, be? Think about this today as you look at the stack of papers, the phone calls to return, the calendar full of appointments and meeting. Look at each of these tasks as your chance to tend and care for your own garden, the garden that has been given to you.

Reference: Genesis 2:15 (New Living Testament)