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We Weren’t Meant to Work

January 16, 2008 By Jeffrey Davis 2 Comments

What if we were never intended by the powers-that-be/source/God/LOVE to work for a living. If you want to take the Garden of Eden allegory as one example of this, you see that man was cursed to work after “the fall”.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau said, “It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living.”

Tonight I had a great convo with my friend, Rick, about this very thing. Of course we were drinking “the Rick special” and testing our wit in a game of Khet while we talked, but we managed a great conversation nonetheless.

He read in a book he is working through something to the effect of, “One must first have serenity before clarity of thought”. (That wasn’t the exact the quote, but it is the gist of it…Rick, feel free to post the exact one in the comments.)

If this is possible, then what Rousseau said makes a lot of sense. We, especially in the western world, seem to spend so much time worried about and enslaved to money, hence, our jobs, that serenity is rarely experienced.

If that be the case, how can we ever expect to spend any time in clear, contemplative thought and awareness? Is there another way? Can we experience true serenity in the midst of our enslavement to work and money?

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  • Rick

    Oh yeah…just a hair bit groggy this am…albeit the after affects of “the Rick special” ;)

    Not to scripturize the thing but the words of a perfect human experience are interesting.

    John 6: 28Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

    Here “the work of God” equals “belief in God”. So, a significant issue is your particular concept of God (i.e. who you believe in). Is God the exacting task master, the schizophrenic (I love you but I’ll let you burn in hell forever) creator, the source of love, life, freedom, peace, contentment or is God something else entirely?

    Which produces serenity through belief? And is serenity required before any degree of concentration is possible?

  • http://chexed.com/ David Rader

    If all things are meant to be as they are, which they must be, otherwise, they would not exist in that way, then with the assumption that perfection must encompass the way something is meant to be, all things in their existent or non-existent state are perfect. One can rest serenely, at least on occasion, with that thought in mind, since it gives a logical backbone (something we crave so eagerly in these times) to the thoughts “everything is ok.”

    I’ll be linking to this post soon… It’s inspired other thoughts as well. Thank you!