Chapter One: The First Assignment Was Discovery
Created for Work, Called to Follow
Let’s go back to the beginning.
Genesis 2:15 (ESV) declares: ”The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
This reveals something foundational about human purpose. Adam’s role was not to create the garden but to steward it. The garden was already in existence, formed and filled with divine intention. Adam was placed into a world infused with meaning and potential, and his task was to uncover, cultivate, and care for what God had already provided.
This understanding of work reframes the modern impulse toward originality. In a world that prizes invention and personal achievement, Scripture invites us to see work not as the creation of meaning but as the discovery of it. Dallas Willard explains, “We were built to live in a creative partnership with God.”1 Our work does not originate from ourselves. Rather, it flows from His design and purpose.
This idea of stewardship is not just central to a biblical theology of vocation, but the central to why we were created. We are called to uncover and develop the possibilities that God embedded in creation. R. Paul Stevens writes, “Our work is not original, but it is meaningful. We are not creators, but discoverers-uncovering what God has already embedded in creation.”2
Success is no longer about originality
This reframing has profound implications for how we understand innovation and success, particularly in business. In the marketplace, people often speak of “creating value” or “making something out of nothing.” Yet from a biblical perspective, all wealth and innovation result from discovering and stewarding what God has already made available.3John Stott reminds us, “Work is the expenditure of energy in the service of others, which brings fulfillment to the worker, benefit to the community and glory to God.”4 This vision of work reorients our ambition. It grounds it in service, fulfillment, and worship.
Success is about faithfulness in stewarding what has been entrusted to us
The apostle Paul reinforces this truth in Acts 17:28: “In Him we live and move and have our being.” Our entrepreneurial efforts, leadership, and service all take place within God’s creative reality. As we build businesses, teach students, raise children, or serve clients, we are participating in His ongoing work.
With this understanding, work becomes a part our worship. Our calling becomes a journey of discovery. And success is no longer about originality. It is about faithfulness in stewarding what has been entrusted to us.
Footnotes
Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (San Francisco: HarperOne, 1998), 399.
R. Paul Stevens, The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 207.
Timothy Keller, Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (New York: Dutton, 2012), 34–35.
John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006), 176.