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)

Working With Adversity

Today is not a usual post of Purposed worKING (and since I am posting on the weekend, we won't count this against the days of the year). As I write this, I am sitting in Hackinsack, NJ. at the bedside of Aldo Preti, my 83 year old Father-in-law, who is dying. We are told that we are in the last days and hours of his life. Among many great traits, my Father-in-law was a real worker. His profession was that of a senior procurement officer for a number of companies. During his time when he served as a senior executive with ITT, he traveled all around the world, which provided many hours of stories, places and times where his children and grandchildren would never travel or experience. He was in Iran in the days leading up to the overthrow of the Shaw; one of the stories that will in indelible to all of us. After his professional career he spent 36 years serving in the Catholic church as a Deacon working in the hospitals visiting and providing support and care for the sick. And now, he is one of the sick. Among the lessons of dying, grief and how we interact with each other in these most difficult of times, it has also been evident to me that death's intrusiveness is something that no matter how we think we are prepared, we are far from being ready. It is only at birth and death that we allow our lives to be totally overtaken for others. I am watching my brother-in laws who both are entrepreneurs and CEOS/Founders of their companies stop their work and spend spans of 24-48 hours in a row around the bedside of their Father. Their work has stopped for more important work. The Founder of Jews for Jesus, Moishe Rosen, wrote in their June newsletter wrote about his own dying (he has advanced cancer)and what opportunities can come from this type of adversity. He says, "Do you remember being a kid on a road trip, continually asking, "Are we there yet?", or "Are we almost there?" Maybe later on you found yourself on the receiving end of such questions, which are almost always asked with impetuous impatience. We need perspective, not only at beginnings, but also at the end of things, as well as in-between, so that we might patiently understand the rate of travel. Adversity has us asking questions to help us determine what is ahead, and what we should do about it. Adversity points out where we have been, and challenges us to realize where we are at. When God asked Adam, "Where are you?" it was not because the Almighty Creator had failing sight or suddenly forgot the geography of the Garden of Eden. No, He was asking Adam to take stock and gain perspective regarding his spiritual condition. In the face of adversity, be it physical or spiritual, God asks us where we are - not because He doesn't know, but because He wants to us to gain perspective, to see if we are where we should be." This week we all face our own adversities. They may not be as acute as my Father-in-law or Moishe's illnesses but there will be decisions to be made about what is important and what is not. When God asks, us, like he asked Adam, "Where are you?", He is asking if our mind, time, energy and perspective are in the right places? As we all work and try the best we can to bring glory to God in what we do, may we also never lose the view of the bigger picture and what God truly has in store for us.