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You Load Sixteen Tons and What Do You Get?

Blog / Produced by The High Calling
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In keeping with the 1980s nostalgia that has captured some bloggers, I started thinking about one of my all time favorite movies: Joe vs. the Volcano. And I wondered, how many people go to work and feel like the guy in our featured video? Poor Joe. He works in a medical accessories factory. They manufacture devices that sound really uncomfortable. I'll just leave it at that. And his job looks like hell. I'm being literal. Bad lights that suck the life out of people. Bad bosses that bark inane orders into the phone. Electric hums. Muddy parking lots. And people marching into work in time to the 1980s rock version of the Tennessee Ernie Ford miner's song:

You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Saint Peter, don’t you call me ‘cause I can’t go; I owe my soul to the company store.

Here's the good news. Work isn't really like this. It's not like the Office either. It's not like Office Space. Or any of those workplace satires. Those are all exaggerated to make the point. We want to take the fax machine out and beat it with a bat, but we don't. Not really. Because really. Work isn't that bad. In fact, it's better than bad. It's good. It's not part of the curse. It's part of our original purpose--Adam was placed in the garden and given work before he ever messed up:

The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. (Gen. 2:15)

Sure, we still live in a fallen world. But we are Christians. We're not part of the fallen world any more. We're in the world, but not of it. We've been given a new chance to get back to work in the garden. We've got work to do. We've got things to take care of. It's what God wants for us. If you're with me on this, let us know in the comments. What Garden has God placed you in? Or maybe you aren't with us. Maybe the last few weeks and months make Joe vs. the Volcano and The Office seem a little too realistic. Then take heart. This is NOT God's plan. This is NOT what God wants your workplace to look like: