In the opening lines of the Bible we see God as creator. Through his power he is powerfully and creatively at work. At the pinnacle of God’s creative endeavor lays the creation of mankind. It is the pinnacle because we alone are made in God’s image. Because He made us in his image we have a dignity, a value and a capacity to be like God but also a responsibility; a responsibility to care for and enjoy the creation that he has given us to care of. This is the work that we are made to do. The value of our work has as nothing to do with whether or not we are paid to do it. As we will see God values work very differently than we do.

In the perfect world of the Garden of Eden there is still work to do. Remember there is no sin; everything is going perfectly to God’s plan and yet there is still work to be done. Gen 2:5b tells us that there is “no man to work the garden”. In this perfect work setting there are a couple of relationships that are highlighted. The first is that there is a relationship between God and the man. The first time Moses, the author of Genesis uses the covenant name “Yahweh” (the LORD) here. The relationship between man and God are highlighted here. God has no such relationship with the animals. No use of the covenant name when he made the dolphins. In addition, God spoke everything else into being, but for making mankind he formed him, hand made if you will, and then breathed life into him. There is a relationship between Adam (the man) and Adamah (the ground) that is to be worked. God’s plan seems to be incomplete without humankind. Man is made for a reason; to work the garden.

The first thing that God has Adam do is not to pray, not to play, not to make Eve and get the happy process of procreation going; but to work. Also the setting, the Garden of Eden, is made for work. In the center of the garden is the tree of life. Don’t look it as a fountain of youth where you eat it once and live forever, but the tree of perpetuity. As long as you keep eating it, it will make you be young and strong. It is placed there for a reason. Work is hard and we need to be refreshed. So in the perfect workplace, God places this tree of life so that Adam may be alert and alive for his work. Still today, mankind has a longing for the tree of life when we work. Hence the popularity of Tim Horton’s coffee. We need a tree of life.

Another thing we can note in the first workplace, the Garden of Eden, was that Adam was given a very specific track of land to work and take care of. As noted in Genesis 2:10-14, it is the land by the Tigris and Euphrates river. His work place is defined. He isn’t given the whole world to take care of. For some of you I know this is difficult to accept. We cannot do it all. God doesn’t want you to do it all. He has given you a specific area to work in.

As we move along in the narrative we note that Adam is given the job to work and care for the garden in verse 15. The first worker is not pastor or priest but a farmer. It’s what his creation needed. Also note that Adam worked directly for God. The word “work” here is not an agricultural term. It is primarily used of human service towards God. In the perfect workplace we are given work that God himself has given him to do. Look at the awesome power God gives to Adam. He gets him to name the animals, which means that he is responsible for him. God is seen here as being in service to Adam in Genesis 2:19, bringing the animals to him.

But in chapter 3 we see sin entered into the world. Now work is hard. Since sin entered into the world work now will be hard. The very ground is cursed. Think of curse in terms of God’s blessing being taken away. In Genesis 3:22-24 we see Adam and Eve banished from the perfect work place. No more Tree of Life. No more tree that is even better than Tim Horton’s at giving life.
The questions we need to ask ourselves are this: Is the curse permanent? Will work forever be hard and difficult? Is it impossible to still “work for God” ?

Ephesians 5:6-7 in The Message reads “work heartily, as Christ’s servants doing what God wants you to do. And work with a smile on your face, always keeping in mind that no matter who happens to be giving the orders, you’re really serving God.”

Here we see that it is still possible to work for God. It is possible to have joy at work, working with a smile on our faces. As Christ’s servants we can still work for God. But if we are truly working for God and not ourselves we need to work God’s way. Working God’s way means we keep the Sabbath holy and do no work on that day. God worked six days and rested one day. The world can do without us working one day. Working for God means that we work with all the integrity, creativity and passion that we have. After all that is the way God himself worked

A couple of weeks ago, I received an invite to a meeting from a project manager I had never heard from before. The meeting invite was pretty standard, it was a process meeting for building a new kind of network connection, a kind never attempted before. As the engineer responsible for the network, I was naturally invited to the meeting. Unfortunately, the day the meeting was scheduled on fell on a day where I was to go to a funeral. Unfortunately, I had not booked the funeral on my calendar; hence the project manager sending the invite thought I was available at that time. Realizing my error, I respectfully declined the meeting, and apologized. Later that afternoon, I received a rather harsh phone call from the project manager saying how it was rather convenient that so many people would decline the meeting he set up. As I had never worked with this gentleman, and the fact that this network connection was for a rather high-profile customer, I decided to investigate as to why so many people would decline something as important as this. I soon realized after discussing with several of my peers that this project manger was known for his incompetence and was legendary for wasting people’s time. One very obvious error that I discovered rather quickly was how he had invited three incorrect people to the meeting, and left six vital people out. He also scheduled the meeting for 30 minutes (in hopes that people would come simply because it was short) which obviously was not nearly enough time for a design of this magnitude! It didn’t take me long to conclude that many of my co-workers declined the meeting invite simply because of the project manager’s history of incompetence. It was also very obvious that many employees had utterly no confidence in his ability to accomplish something as simple as chairing a process meeting.

As Christians in the workplace, competence is one of the most important characteristics we must uphold. Without the ability to inspire confidence and trust with your fellow peers, how would you get them to have the same kind of confidence and trust in the word of God that you intend to pass on? By first doing well in the career that God gave you, you will be in a far better position to carry God’s message to others!

I have been driving for over three decades and thank God I have not been involved in any serious accidents. Hence when my children were ready for driving lessons, I thought I was quite qualified to pass on some practical tips to them.

Before long, they were making comments that were not exactly complimentary. The most common one was: why didn’t you make a full stop at the stop sign? My first response was that I was the only one at the junction. Wrong answer! You are supposed to stop the car completely whether there is another vehicle present at the junction or not. That is what Drivers Ed teaches, they say.

I cannot argue with them because they are right. They are doing it by the book. The number of merits on my driver’s license would not vindicate me. I cannot tell them to ignore the stop sign once they have more experience. The bottom line is that I want them to be safe drivers. If I have not shown them how a good driver behaves in front of a stop sign all these years, I need to change.

Once they realized that I am not a prefect driver, they started to point out many of my bad driving habits. “You are not supposed to change lanes at an interaction!” But I didn’t. I just signaled that I was planning to change lane. “Well, even that is not proper.”

My children reminded me of my driving instructor. I started taking driving lessons just before I entered the medical school. A few of us went to this private driving school and had the same instructor. He was quite strict. While I do not remember the details of his instruction, I do recall his favourite admonition: “Slow down and look both ways at all railway crossings. It pays off even if it saves your life just once.” I need to pass tips like this to my children.

The lingering question remains: what kind of driver do I want my children to be? With that thought in mind, I suddenly find myself driving differently. The concern is no longer whether I can get away without coming to a full stop at the stop sign but whether I want my children to do the same thing.

I will need to remind them of the rules after they have been driving for a few years. I want them to be strict on themselves and yet be streetwise at the same time.

What has Contempo got to do with driving?

One of the distinctive features of Contempo is our emphasis on intergenerational dialogue. The parent generation needs to be connected with the emerging generation. But in order to do so, the parent generation should take note of the following.

1. Be ready to take some criticism

I am glad that my children pointed out my bad driving habits. Those are my blind spots and I would not have noticed them if my children did not reveal them to me. I am indebted to my children for their frankness. Their criticism will keep me from getting into some major accidents.

2. Be ready to make some changes

Once our blind spots are pointed out, we need to make changes. We cannot tell our children just do what we tell them but don’t follow our example. If we are not willing to take their words seriously, intergenerational dialogue becomes meaningless. If we are not ready to make changes in our lives, do not expect the younger generation to make changes in their lives.

3. Be clear about your objective

My objective is to make my children safe drivers. I will take every action to make that happen. It is not a matter of pride or even a matter of communication. It is even more than just bridging the generation gap. Ensuring their safety is the real goal.

Similarly, our objective for Contempo should be clear. We want to make the emerging generation, including our children, faithful followers of Christ at work and elsewhere. Nothing else is more important. Money, fame, peer acceptance, praise from church leaders, job security, proximity to the parents etc. are not part of the bottom line.

I must make my children safe drivers. If it means I have to bury a little bit of my pride as a father, I am more than willing. I thank my children for being open with me, showing me my blind spots. In my efforts to make them safe drivers, they have in turn made me a better driver.

This is the message of the Contempo movement.