I had an appointment at the local PBS studios the other day. They're within walking distance of my office so I decided to hoof it and enjoy some fresh air. As I walked I was struck by a thought: work is not part of the curse.

It may seem like a simple and obvious idea, but it hit me in such a way as to completely change my perspective in that moment. Work is not part of the curse.

We all walk a different path and maybe your's has been a gentle one. For the most part, mine has been, too. But, it's felt rather difficult over the last few years. Being a small business owner has been one of the most challenging things I've ever done. And, with the economy in the state it's been in and having moments where I did not think the business was going to make it, all I wanted to do at times was run away and become a philosopher-hermit, living beside a babbling brook in a secluded glenn, reading scripture and communing with God every day. (Queue the harps and rays of sunlight.)

I didn't want to work anymore. In my mind, work had become a curse, the burden of this world. A struggle. I was tired of it and I wanted to be set free. I kept thinking that someday I would not have to work anymore and I longed for that day to come.

And then, on my five minute walk, I remembered something that I used to know. Work was never part of the curse. Man was made to work. We were created to put our hand to something, to exert ourselves in an endeavor.

God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
—Genesis 1:28

Subdue the earth. That's work. Adam was not given a lazy life in the garden. He was not the original trust fund kiddie with a rich daddy and time on his hands. God said to fill the earth and to subdue it, bring it under his rule. Build, create, order, maintain. Work.

So why does work feel like such a curse at times?

Scripture teaches us that man was doomed to eat by the sweat of his brow. Once he sinned against God and betrayed his responsibility to fill, subdue and rule, God said the earth would now fight him, throwing up thistles and thorns as man labored to get his daily bread.

By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.
—Genesis 3:19

Now man, under the curse, must struggle to eat. In the beginning we did not have to toil for our food. Our survival and care were guaranteed. We were free to do the work we were created for and one can assume that it would bring us satisfaction and fulfillment, that we would enjoy it. Only after the fall of man did working to eat become a necessity.

So, if working to eat is part of the curse, did Jesus change that, setting us free from toil when he died and rose from the dead? Did he set us free to do the work that God originally intended for us?

I believe that's true in theory, but I'm not sure what that means in day-to-day life. What does it look like if Jesus broke the curse, and specifically man's need to toil for his food? How does a believer walk that out? I'm sure faith in God's provision has something to do with it. Psalm 37:25 comes to mind, "I have been young and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken Or his descendants begging bread."

What would it look like if our work was set free from the curse? What work would we do? What cares and worries would we shed? What joy would we have?

I'm committed to finding out.