Have you ever seen a builder lying on a couch, doing nothing, while a beautiful building rises around him? I think such a person should be called a dreamer who builds castles in the air. But we are building happiness. Strange as it may seem, many people do this while lying on a couch, and then they get up and enjoy strong walls. One of the beautiful bricks for the house of happiness is called, ‘I work,’ which means being occupied with useful activity.
God did not create idlers so that we would lie around all day, from morning until evening, doing nothing but eating and sleeping, and still be happy. No, that was not part of God’s plan. The Creator gave human beings strength, reason, will, and intellect. When He created Adam, He gave him a garden to cultivate and keep, so that in this and in other ways he would find useful occupation for body, soul, and spirit.
Have you noticed that when we are doing something necessary, our day passes joyfully? But if a person does not know what to do, or figuratively lies around with his feet in the air, his time is wasted. The day drags on until evening when there is nothing to do. Today mobile phones have very successfully replaced many useful activities. As a result, these devices plunge many people into the impenetrable darkness of unhappiness caused by idleness, attempting to satisfy the human need to work with informational garbage.
There was a time in my life when I had to rise very early to go to work. I would think how wonderful it would be to keep sleeping, but I got out of bed and began the day with prayer, asking for strength, wisdom, and blessings for myself and those close to me. There were also times when I did not have to go to work and allowed myself to sleep in. I would get up with emptiness in my heart because I was in no hurry to go anywhere and had nothing to do. Of course, one can always find some work around the house or in the garden, but when you allow yourself to relax in this way and fall into idleness, it brings no pleasure. A joyful spirit is more my choice than the result of attaining some dream. It comes from Jesus Christ, from fellowship with Him, and from accomplishing something.
I knew a young man who planned to become a successful and wealthy businessman—so wealthy that he simply would not know how to spend his millions. But I noticed one problem: he stayed online until late at night and then slept until noon. I think he still has a long way to go before reaching his goal.
We have been given the fourth commandment, which calls us to rest on the seventh-day Sabbath. It begins with the command, ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy,’ and then continues with another command: ‘Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God.’
In this commandment, besides Sabbath observance, the Lord also commands us to work and attend to our responsibilities instead of spending our time in idleness. God gave this commandment so that we would be happy—so that after becoming physically, spiritually, morally, and emotionally tired from all our work, we would enter His rest and meet with Him. You begin to appreciate the blessedness of the Sabbath day in a special way when you have spent the whole week observing the fourth commandment by laboring and doing all your work.
Useful work is something that benefits both me and others. Each person must determine for himself what that means. It is something that brings satisfaction to my spirit and soul without destroying my connection with God.
We were made to work on this Earth, and in Eternity we will also be occupied with something. There our creative minds will find a vast field of activity in which to bring to life every good idea that may occur to us.
There is a very common way to kill time: playing computer games, watching worldly television programs, or viewing captivating videos, with which the internet is now oversaturated. Nothing destroys happiness as quickly as these activities. Life becomes filled with emptiness. At times I have been caught by similar hooks of Satan, and afterward I wondered what I had gained by investing my time in emptiness.
When we enter forbidden territory, we come under the spell of evil spirits who seek to impose their values upon us. The result is vanity of vanities.
But if we devote that wasted time to studying and viewing spiritual things, the mind comes alive. It begins to work. God Himself begins to speak to it, and many things that we had not noticed before appear in our lives for us to do.
The Great Controversy for possession of human minds is now taking place, and we can choose what will fill our minds. Our deeds then follow our spiritual content, bearing the imprint of what is within us and of what we feed our consciousness.
When I perform tasks or work with my hands, creating something useful and beautiful, my life becomes filled with satisfaction and meaning. Yet there is a danger of making work the meaning of life and living for it; then the spiritual side begins to suffer. The Sabbath day becomes a burden and is spent wishing that it would end quickly so that work can continue. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Sabbath remains outside and quietly knocks on my heart. He calls me to spiritual fellowship and is ready to bless me and everyone who hears His voice, opens the door to Him, lets Him in, and sups with Him. On His day Jesus desires fellowship with me and, through my rest, to give me renewed strength for work.
If our muscles receive no exercise, they lose their strength. The same thing happens to the mind. We need to exercise these important faculties continually. Fellowship with God through reading, reflection, communion with Him, and prayer is a very useful activity and excellent exercise for our spiritual nature. This too is work—the building of my spiritual fortress.
It is written, ‘Become as little children.’ Children always find something to do. Everything interests them. They know how to ask persistently for what they need and receive it. They are always moving and looking for new activities, and every little thing makes them happy. Children do not worry needlessly about anything. Sometimes we should learn these useful skills from them.
I work. In this, it is important to give direction to my activity so that it benefits me and bears good fruit in my life. Then the realization that everything is right will come into my life, and happiness will knock on my heart at all times. I will only need to decide what to do with it: should I let it into my life in the form of joyful emotions, or leave it in the form of deep satisfaction with what has been accomplished?
When God created our world and completed what He had planned, He saw that everything was good; and the final assessment of all the work He had done was, ‘Very good!’
Creative work brings satisfaction. As a builder, I find it very pleasant, after long labor, to pass by the work of my hands and admire what was made with love. It is especially joyful to build the happiness of others and later hear how wonderful it is for people to live with God, to be protected from every evil in their little house of happiness, and to prepare for Eternity by sweeping everything unnecessary out of their hearts.
And love makes all my work right and gives everything I do a very good meaning. It makes everything very good.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Exodus 20:8–11; Genesis 1:31; 2:15; Proverbs 6:6–11; Matthew 25:26; Proverbs 21:25; Acts 18:3; Ephesians 4:28; Galatians 6:9–10; Ecclesiastes 9:10; 10:18; 11:4–6; 12:13