The Wicket Gate

This week I want to share some thoughts about the “Merry-go-round” from chapter two. Riding the “merry-go-round” of life is the realization that tasks on this earth are repetitive and seemingly accomplish nothing. Eating, drinking, working is toilsome and the “rut” of life. I mowed the grass last week, our area has been blessed with rain, I will mow again next week. It feels as though there is no end, no satisfying completion. While we may at times feel momentarily satisfied with a particular task, the task arises again, and how many times will we ride the merry-go-round of a particular chore before it becomes completely unsatisfying?

Borgman summarizes the chapter on the monotony on page 46,

“Doing laundry, changing diapers, mowing your lawn, living day after day, is a fit. There is not much new about the gift but there is one who is making all things new, who after He has given you this short life as a gift, will give you the gift of a new creation, where the wonder of it all will never grow old. Where “do it again” will never be boring.”

 I have worked in poultry production for 16 years, all with the same company, we work every day (because chickens don’t take days off). We follow the same rhythms and patterns, these rhythms and patterns are tedious, sweat producing, and tiring. Each year as a farm follows the same pattern each year (if the Lord wills) beginning with breeders in the summertime, separating and housing our 200+ breeds of chickens, reaching egg production in the spring and beginning again with breeders in the summer. The process is tried and true and has been repeated for decades. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are exciting times- often when something is wrong. The thrill of fixing pipes, solving electrical dilemmas, separating and housing chickens(often 2-3000 per day for four weeks in October and November) can be a rush. But after weeks of moving chickens, or days of fixing pipes and motors the thought creeps in “let me off this merry-go-round Lord!” Add to this the stress of working every day (about 345 days a year at 7 am), the constant fear of disease, predators, human resource problems, and accidents led me to live in an anxious state.

My first question often in discussions on the phone or in person was “what’s wrong?” In fact several years ago I confided in one of my friends “I just don’t get the rush anymore,” the exhilaration of constant accomplishment is gone, I don’t feel like I am winning, it only feels like losing. Phrases crept in to my vocabulary like “well, we will try again tomorrow.” The same lesson the preacher was teaching in Ecclesiastes, by the Spirit, millennia before had come to pass in my life, just like all others “under the sun.” It really felt meaningless!

I enjoyed what I was doing and am still doing today, but mentally I was disordered. Things began to change for me when I read The Things of Earth and Strangely Bright, and Don’t Waste your Breath, I saw (by the indwelling Spirit) the need for re-ordering of my life. Doing all things to the Glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31), with the strength that God supplies (1 Pet. 4:11), giving thanks God for the opportunity to serve him in this life (Col. 3:17). Life (and specifically work in this post) is not meant to be vanity; it is a fleeting breath for use as God has purposed us (Heb. 10:35-36).

The need for feelings of completion or accomplishment in this life are hebel, look to Christ and his sacrifice for all time accomplishing our salvation. An accomplishment and completion firm as bedrock for us to live, breathe, and find contentment in our labors under the sun (Heb. 10:11-14), the only accomplishment we need. Rightly ordered Christians cherish the privilege to glory in God by laboring in this life, by the talents and strength he supplies. Also remember the work he has set before us serves to reminds us of the glory to come, the end of our groaning (Rom. 8:23).

I may be making my thought too personal, but the merry-go-round is a gift that brings joyful contentment demonstrated in patient endurance only possible with the indwelling Spirit. Enjoy work as a gift from God! When the drudgery creeps in remember that we are now in Christ (Gal. 2:20), the Savior’s work is accomplished, and that cannot be taken away (Romans 8:1-2). I have to get back to work now! Lol.