Taproot Church

My least favorite tool

I love tools. I can spend hours browsing in a woodworking equipment store. I have a shop full of tools. To use a tool that is well designed, well made, and effective is something that gives me a lot of pleasure. However, the tool that is my least favorite is my shovel. It is a quality shovel, well made, classic design, and I keep it sharp and ready to use. But the idea of pulling it out of my shed for some garden task does not bring the expectation of a pleasurable experience. A shovel represents hard, sweaty, dirty, exhausting manual labor. It brings back memories of my youth when I spent many hours digging post holes by hand on my parent’s property in eastern Washington. My wife and I recently bought seven small trees that needed planting in my back yard, so I was faced with the prospect of spending a rare beautiful sunny Saturday with my least favorite tool.

I began the planting job on a day that started out cool and cloudy, but soon became sunny. It got hot and I started to sweat. As I worked, I began meditating on Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I also began thinking about Genesis 1:28 where God gave Adam and Eve the assignment to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”. The sweat and effort I was experiencing was because of man’s original sin (and mine), not because of my least favorite tool. The Lord had given Adam and Eve work (tending the garden) even before the curse from original sin.

I realized that there was grace in my shovel work as well as toil. Working the soil is hard, but nothing compares with the sound of the outdoors, the smell of fresh turned dirt, the warmth of the sun on your face, and the anticipation of how good if feels to be tired after a day of hard work. I became thankful for the privilege of owing a small piece of land that I could work with a shovel. I was thankful I had the strength to work like this for several hours. I marveled at how I could see the effects of my sweat in seven neatly planted trees. I don’t get this satisfaction sweating from exercise at a fitness gym.

The Lord originally gave work as a grace and a blessing. It was an avenue for us to know something about His nature because He worked. The sweat and toil in work (to make a living) was a result of our sin and rebellion. In spite of this, work remains a way of walking with Christ. I can see that if I ever give in to my preference to be a lazy sluggard, I would miss not only the fruits of my labors, but the fellowship of God. Without work, I would never appreciate rest, and therefore lose a valuable insight into why God rested on the seventh day of creation.

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