Occupations In Heaven Series

The story is told of a man who died and found himself in a region of fabulous abundance. His

slightest wish was instantly granted. At last, however, the novelty wore off and he became bored. He

told his host he would love to do something. Was there any work he could perform, or any problem

he could help solve? His host said, "I am sorry, but there is no work to be done here." "No work!"

cried the man in frustration. "Nothing to do!" he shouted. "I would rather be in hell than have

nothing to do forever." His host replied, "Just where do you think you are?"

The hell of hell will be nothing to do. There will be no labor of love, no purpose to being, no

goals to achieve, and no expressions of creativity. Hell will be a state of perpetual unemployment.

Dorothy Sayers, the great female apologist for Christianity, said, "Damnation is without direction or

purpose. It has nothing to do and all eternity to do it in."

In contrast, heaven will be a place, not only of eternal enjoyment, but of eternal employment.

When God made Adam, He made him a creature of creativity, with a desire to work. He gave him a

job, to keep the garden of Eden, and to study the animal kingdom, so he could give all the animals

names. Adam was made a botanist and zoologist the day he was created. God made man to study

and to have dominion over his environment. He gave him both physical and mental work, for both

are vital to the joy of living.

It is a logical conclusion that God will give even more exciting and satisfying jobs to His children

in the eternal paradise. Certainly, his perfected saints will be ready for greater labors than even

Adam ever dreamed about. This has been the universal hope of believers down through the

centuries. They expect to serve God in a way that satisfies the built in desires God has given them to

be creative. Robert J. Burdette, expressed the faith of many when he wrote, " My work is about

ended. I think the best of it I have done poorly; any of it I might have done better; but I have done it.

And in a fairer land, with finer material and a better working light, I shall so a better work." The

poet adds these words,

I cannot think of Paradise a place

Where men go idly to and fro,

With harps of gold and robes that shame the snow;

With great wide wings that brightly interlace

Whenever they sing before the Master's face---

Within a realm where neither pain nor woe,

Nor care is found; where tempests never blow

Where souls with hopes and dreams may run no race.

Such paradise were but a hell to me;

Devoid of all progression, I should rot,

Or shout for revolution, wide and far.

Better some simple task, a spirit free

To act along the line of self forgot--

Or help God make a blossom or a star.

It is intolerable for Christians to believe, that rest from the battle with evil, means an everlasting

idleness. Can that be the goal of all God's work, and all the cooperative labors of man? To be saved

to spend eternity in idleness, just when we finally gain what we need to be most effective, is

inconsistent with the nature of God's wisdom. Better that we be left sinful and imperfect beings, who

love serving our Lord, than to be perfected for the sake of inactivity and unproductive idleness. We

can understand the hope for rest from life's battles, and that is a legitimate concept of heaven, but in

our new bodies we will not need rest. We only need rest for what we endure now, and that is why

the poet has written,

There once was a woman who always was tired

She lived in a house where no help was hired.

On her death bed she said, dear friends I am goin

Where washing aint done nor cookin nor sewin,

And everything there will be just to my wishes,

For where they don't eat there's no washin of dishes.

Don't mourn for me now, don't mourn for me ever,

For I'm goin to do nothin, forever and ever.

We can understand her desire to escape from the burdens of life, and that is a part of our heavenly

hope. But to do nothing for ever and ever, is certainly not a worthy ambition for a child of God.

Our ultimate hope ought to be, to do more for the glory of God in our perfected bodies, than we ever

could in the weakness of our earthly bodies.

The question is, what will we do in heaven? What kinds of jobs will be available? What sort of