Crystal Clear

(Blog written by Judith Cooke, a Marriage and Family Therapist with Christian Counselling Services. She has an M.Div in Counselling from Tyndale Seminary.)Do you know the story of the children of Israel?

No?

Let me tell it to you.

God’s children were in Egypt for many, many years. At first it was a good place, where they had homes and families and work and food. It was safe. But then events took place that turned it into a dark and fearful land. God’s children were hurt, over and over again, by the people of the land.The Egyptians made them into slaves, forcing them to work hard, and then harder, and punishing them when they couldn’t keep up.

The burdens carried by the Israelites were very, very great, and so they moaned and wailed and cried out to God for deliverance. God heard them and, after what seemed like an eternity, he acted. He brought them Moses, to lead them out of Egypt, out of the place of their pain and exile. Moses and God worked hard to get the people out of Egypt, and when the people were finally free, at least on the outside, a strange thing happened: they wanted to go back to Egypt.

God was inviting his children to a beautiful, spacious, safe place, a land flowing with milk and honey, where he would dwell with them, and they wanted to go back to Egypt.

How is this possible? It makes no sense.

But maybe it does.

The children of Israel had lived in Egypt for hundreds of years. It was in the blood, now. It was all they knew. When they got out into the desert, being led by God whom they hardly knew, and crazy Moses, they were scared. So they acted out of their fear. When it seemed like there wouldn’t be enough food to eat and water to drink, it didn’t make sense to them to trust that they would be provided for; it made sense to be afraid, and long to go back to the place where there had been food and water— even if it wasn’t a good place.

When they were out in the desert, with their leader Moses up a mountain for weeks, they felt lost and abandoned, and it made sense to them to manage their fear by building an idol they could see, rather than trusting a God whom they couldn’t.

They protected themselves from the fear of the unknown by listening to people who confirmed what they feared about the danger ahead, rather than hearing the voices of people who spoke of hope and the goodness of God.

Inside themselves they were exiles, longing for home; but they thought home was the land of their exile, with all its pain and suffering. They fought to go back there, instead of moving ahead into the new country, which was meant to be their good home. It was beyond their ken to conceive of a land where they could be free, which is very understandable.

It’s difficult to imagine being free of burdens that have always been yours, so much so that it seems if they were taken away, you wouldn’t be you any more.

The most beautiful part of the story of the children of Israel—God’s special people—is that God was longing for them to allow him to bear their burdens.

“In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” Is 63:9

“Listen to me…you who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb: even to you old age I am he, and even to hair white with age will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry and will save you.” Is.46:3,4

“Blessed be the Lord, who bears our burdens and carries us day by day, even the God who is our salvation.” Ps 68:19

We also see the heart of God in Jesus; he came to us, his special children, to bear our burdens.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt 11:28

“Cast your burdens on the Lord, for he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

It’s important that we don’t skip to the end of this story and conclude that the moral is “I have to give my burdens to God.” Maybe for some people it’s easy to do, but it’s not for many of us. It is more important to understand why we don’t give our burdens to Jesus. Like the Israelites, we have lived with our burdens for a long time, and it’s difficult, perhaps terrifying, to conceive of life without them. It makes sense that we would rather manage and protect our pain— it’s what we know. If we get mad at, and critical of, ourselves for doing that, we make our misery increase.

What makes more sense to me, is that we approach our burdens, and the way we hold onto them, with compassion and curiosity. Then, as we come to understand our fears, the grasp we have on our burdens may loosen, and we may begin to find it safe to open our hands, and allow the kind and gentle hands of Jesus to hold our pain, and to fill the place where it was with himself.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt 11:29-30.

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So if your job is just a job, not a calling, what if your job stinks? What if you hate it and it brings you down? Is there a bar under which a job is marked meaningless and should not be available?

I wish those jobs could be mechanized. But then, all the people who would be out of work would need another job. I’d like to see an election promise state full employment for everyone who wants it. We look at the jobs rates now, and say they are the lowest in ten years, but there are still many people unemployed or underemployed. (I’m one of them!)

The new jobs would need to meaningful jobs, and I guess the rub is who defines meaningful? I guess each person would. When’s the last time the employee got asked how they want to do their job?

I’ve heard someone talk about the irony of our North American workplace mindset. As kids grow up we encourage them to make choices: what clothes to wear, what to ear, where to go to school, and so on. When we become adults and get a job, we are told what to wear, how to do our jobs, when to come to work and when to leave.

I think most of us would like to work in a company that values our intelligence, respects our decision making, and holds us accountable for our mistakes. That would be a meaningful place to work, and the company would prosper in whatever they would do.

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What is work? For some people, it is a something to be endured, so that money is available for when work is done. Others enjoy work to a point, but are glad when the day is over. Others love their jobs, the people they work with, and are excited at the beginning of each day.

Personally, I tend to cycle through each of these: depending on my mood, how work is going, and the phase of the moon. I felt that I needed a change enough that I began to look for other work, idealy in a field that interests me and suits my strengths.

But then I didn’t find a job quickly. I’m still looking after 4 months. And I’ve started to reflect on work.

My Protestant Christian tradition has a high view of work. We often talk about our vocation as our calling in life. Work is seen as one of the main ways to serve God. This has left me struggling for meaning in my life. I had such high hopes to do something meaningful and world changing. I have the grades and the skills to make something happen. I have the optimism and confidence. But I haven’t got the job.

I’ve applied for wonderful jobs; jobs I would love to do and would do well. I applied for entry level jobs in companies I’d love to move up in. I applied for jobs where I really felt I could make a positive difference. Nothing. Consoling myself with “just do your best for God in whatever job you’re in” has not been so comforting.

So what is meaningful work? I think I feel like a failure because in elevating jobs to the calling of God on my life, makes me feel like I’m wasting the gifts given to me. I could be doing so much better.

So maybe some people get to have their vocation be their calling. But maybe for most of us, our job is a place simply to be faithful, to work with integrity and honesty, in order to provide for ourselves and others. Maybe a job is simply a job sometimes.

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So many things like this have happened but I was unaware. Thank you to every person who takes a part in making this planet a livable place!

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This great little company rents out hard to find environmental DVDs. Check them out!

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I hear a lot of concern that changing the way we make and use energy means that the economy will collapse and making those changes will cost so much more than we can afford.

On the other side, I also struggle with what it would mean if everyone consumed less. Would 1/4 or more of the people in our society be without jobs? Do we need to keep buying products so that other have jobs so they can buy products, etc.?

To help me logically reason through this minefield, I turn to The Parable of the broken window.

And so I think we can’t continue to allow things that destroy the world we live in or that are not beneficial. We can begin to think like the Green Party – tax the things that are bad to encourage the things are are good.

For example, in the building beside us, every couple weeks or so, they take out materials from the building, drop them in a dumpster, and we hear glass break. I believe that they do this because it is cheap to get rid of stuff. But is it garbage? If it cost more to discard the materials, they would take the time to separate and reuse what they can. This would drive up their cost, but would also provide for a new industry and would be better for our environment.

We need to change our thinking that any change that costs more is detrimental. The reality is that it brings more opportunities with it.

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