LIGHT FOR PRODUCTIVE LIVING (1)

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…” – Genesis 1:28a

From humanity’s inception, God had released LIGHT for PRODUCTIVE LIVING: “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish if the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen.1:28). To be productive is to have good and positive results relative to efforts expended. According to the Creator’s Manual, we were created and designed to be productive; to be contributive rather than consumptive; to add value to creation. Life is more about Fruitfulness and Productivity than about Activity, Busy-ness, and Preservation. Life is more about Multiplication than maintenance.

God created Man in His Image and in His likeness, and blessed them with the ability to exercise dominion. To bless means to confer some benefit or to empower. So, what God did was that He empowered Adam and Eve to be fruitful and productive, to multiply, replenish, and refill the earth. Today’s Meditation Text, a Gem in Genesis, expresses God’s original four-fold Productivity Agenda for Humanity:

• Fruitfulness – being productive with what God has given us.
• Multiplication – reproducing, increasing and becoming larger.
• Subduing the earth – by cultivating to improve the quality of life.
• Dominion – exercising authority over the works of God’s hands.

Productivity is rooted in Faithfulness. This is buttressed by the Parable of the Talents narrated by our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 25:14-29). Faithfulness transcends the ability to merely maintain what we have; it includes the ability to increase its value. Productivity is about ADDED VALUE. To the servants that received and multiplied two and four talents, the master said: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been FAITHFUL over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the Joy of your Lord” (Mt.25:21). The one-talent servant expended extra effort to dig the ground, bury, and preserve his talent, yet he was considered to be unfaithful, and therefore unproductive!

To be productive means to be a Producer, a maker or manufacturer of something, as opposed to being a mere consumer. Producers are innovative: they cultivate, expand, influence their context, and impact their environment positively. Producers understand and maximize their value in life. Producers conceive ‘visions’ and give birth to ‘realities.’ Producers define how the lives of consumers should be! Many people are consumers rather than producers. Life is meant to be more than a flurry of activities, anxieties, ‘busy-ness’ and uncontrolled consumption.

An absolute consumer is a waster: one who absorbs everything in sight, but never adds value to others. Everything stops in the hands of a consumer. A consumer is an entrance only, never an exit! He or she simply maintains status-quo without adding any value to life. Working productively enables us to honour God by maximizing the use of time and to do good works for His Glory!