Abundant Living Vol. XXII, Issue 34

“. . . and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply . . .”  – Genesis 1:28 

August in Texas, not exactly my favorite season of the year, never has been.  Worse, as I age I find myself less and less tolerant of the extreme heat that inevitably presents itself this time of year, while when I was younger it had little impact, I could work or exercise outside in the middle of the day without giving it much thought.  Nowadays, though, it seems that not only do I slow down, but everything else does as well.  Business slows to a crawl, clients are out of town (someplace cool no doubt), and no one wants to do much of anything.  It’s the season of the doldrums when, if I am not careful, I can fall into the trap of becoming idle and unproductive.  And I don’t like being idle and unproductive!  Who among us does?

No wonder, for from the very beginning of creation we were commanded by God to be productive – “. . . and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply . . .”   In other words, from our very origin we were designed to do work.  So, if we find ourselves in a place where we are not doing something productive we can quickly fall into a funk.

Work comes in different forms, though, and how and what we produce can evolve as we grow in our careers or grow older in our lives.  Tee and I both had grandparents who lived well into their nineties. Old age had sapped them of much of their energy and physical abilities, much like we suffer from the summer heat, yet we found their wisdom, life experiences, and encouragement invaluable.  Even though they struggled at times in that their physical abilities were not what they once were, they were extraordinarily productive as far as we were concerned.  Similarly, career growth sometimes requires us to relinquish to others some of the “doing”.  Instead, our jobs may transition into mentoring – providing wisdom, encouragement, and leadership.  That too qualifies as productive work.

I know I will never be able to tolerate the heat the way I once did, but that’s a poor excuse for falling into the doldrums.  God commanded us after all to “be fruitful and multiply.”  And I don’t think He ever mentioned anything about age limits on that.