Is hard work really a punishment?

Photo by Photomish Dan

Have you ever worked really hard for something, planning, thinking about it, putting all of you effort into it, and finally – finished the work successfully? How did that feel? Was that a good feeling? Have you ever created something, almost out of nothing – wrote, painted, drew, programmed? Did the creation of the final product felt good?

I think most of us felt, at least at some point in their life, the joy of hard work. The happiness that come with a work well done. For each and every one of us the joy comes from something a little different. For some it is the recognition by others. For others, it is the inherent feeling of pride. But we all know that although working hard could be a difficult experience, it could actually be a very gratifying experience as well.

And then you read this:

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return (Genesis 3, 17-19) .

Is this a really a punishment for defying the word of God? Really? The right to work hard in order to gain something?

I don’t think so. If God is all knowing and knows past and future, he would have known Adam would eat from the forbidden fruit. He could have prevented it. But, as I already mentioned in the blog, this story is about choice. However, there is a different lesson in the punishment. Are you ready for it?

Nothing worth gaining is ever gained without effort.

What Adam and Eve gained from eating the forbidden fruit must come with a price. Otherwise, it is not worth the effort. And from that moment on, everything worth having – and in biblical days the most important things were food and children – will not come without an effort.

Today, many of us view work as a burden, something you do to pay the bills. Something we need to get through. Maybe we should listen to the lesson of Genesis 3. Maybe by trying to make something worthwhile out of a job, we can reach flow and happiness. We spend so much of our days working; shouldn’t we try and gain something worthwhile out of all the effort?

Elad

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