As we spend this week thinking about balancing work and life, it might be worth remembering that work has been a part of Creation since before the Fall. Boyd draws a distinction between work—participating in the care and cultivation of God's world—and toil, which is the result of the Fall. If we pursue our work as a calling, it will be a lot easier to see it as one part of a whole, God-oriented life. If we give ourselves over to toil, according to the standards of an all-consuming desire for advancement, things start to go off-kilter. 

Want to hear more? You can find the rest of our conversation with Boyd over at the High Calling YouTube Channel. 

TRANSCRIPT: It's important to understand that in the creation narrative, before sin ever entered into the world, Adam was to tend the garden. And I believe that part of what the writer of Genesis was seeking to incorporate in the narrative, as he was talking about this, was the fact that work is fundamental to our being human. It is more than toil, which it became in many ways after sin. It is a calling from God. The more you understand that work is a calling, the more it enables you to pour into it the energy and the creativity that are going to make your contribution to the workplace distinctive. What I do, I try and do well. I try and do it well not because I'm obsessive, but because I'm called of God.