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To Adam He said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return” (Genesis 3:17-19).

All throughout our area we see farmers working the fields; the Amish using teams of horses or mules, some types of Mennonites using tractors with steel wheels (rubber is not allowed) and of course all manner of modern farm equipment. Regardless of their method of labor, physical toil under the hot sun, can be quite uncomfortable or even dangerous at times.

I remember stopping by a beautiful Amish farm one summer where the farmer, his wife and children had planted a large garden that had an abundance of foliage — leaves, stems, and vines growing in thick layers; it was a lush vegetable garden. The rows of plants were up on raised beds with a grassy area for a walkway between the rows. It was clearly a well-tended, well-watered garden. I could already see evidence of the abundant harvest coming up through the fertile Lancaster County soil.

We consider the toil required to produce such a lush vegetable garden. It didn’t just happen. Sowers had to fight the thorns and thistles, persistent weeds, plant diseases, the varied insects that destroy, and for some it's deer, birds, squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs or other critters that want a free lunch and dinner! It is an ongoing battle requiring time, attention and diligent labor. The major toil behind this beautiful garden was a hard-working Amish woman with sweat on her brow and lots of dirt on her clothing and under her fingernails!

Most of us don’t work with soil for a living but we are all dependent on those who do. We may have a small vegetable or flower plot and that’s enough to understand the effect of the “curse” referred to in the daily verse.

However, today consider the phrase “painful toil” in a broader sense. Regardless of what our work entails it seems there is an aspect of painful toil. I take this internet ministry very seriously and also find it to be rewarding in regard to personal fulfillment in helping others on their faith journey. Although I rarely have physical sweat on my brow while preparing my message I certainly know painful toil! Last week I lost an entire message due to my computer shutting down for an update and I hadn't yet saved it.  I should have learned that by now, but I still mess up now and then!

Consider your labor today. For some of you it’s going very well and you might not even use the word “toil” in describing it, let alone painful toil!  But for most the toil is rather ongoing and you know times of painful toil as well. This “painful toil” may not be in the sense of an aching back but an obnoxious boss or fellow workers that are a real pain. Perhaps you work with machinery that is always breaking down or you're working on a difficult project and everything that could go wrong already has.

Brooksyne and I want to encourage you today and to do so we must look ahead. Quite honestly we expect times of toil, which will be very painful and perplexing at times, for our remaining time on earth. We ask the Lord to give us wisdom, persistence and an overcoming spirit as wepersonally deal with these matters and we pray that for you as well.

But to counteract the dread of toil I also look for the blessing of a future promise: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them” (Revelation 14:13).

Be encouraged today, Hebrews 3:13.

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber