The 52 Week Vacation Job

When a person looks for a job, one of the first things they are drawn to is the benefits package.  What are the benefits of joining your organization?  That is the question we might ask before we would ever consider joining a company.  Once we join, we would constantly ask ourselves are the benefits worth the cost and toil of belonging to that organization.  Is it worth it?  Do we identify with its purpose and calling?  Imagine if someone asked you to join an organization and gave you the best benefits package you could ever imagine and the only thing the owner asks of you is that you rest in the work that the owners son has already done and continues to do.  It is the job that requires a 52 week vacation.  

You see where I am going with this.  Psalm 103:1-5 is the job description, but it only lists the benefits section.  Some of us would have a hard time with that - and feel we must work for the benefits.  Others of us would think it just is too good a deal to be true.  A 52 week vacation for the rest of my life?  Nahh, I'll pass.

The primary benefit - the base salary so to speak is forgiveness.  My iniquities are forgiven - I am made whole spiritually.  Verse 4 says I am redeemed from the pit.  Imagine if you applied for a job and you had up to your eyeballs in debt.  The owner not only offers to you the job, but he says that he will wipe out the debt you had accumulated.  We would know that is over the top.  No one in their right mind would expect that.  Maybe he offers me a salary package and I have to work out my own debt, but for him to pay off my existing debt that I screwed up generating would be way off the charts.  Verse 4 says I am lifted from a pit.  No one every climbs out of a pit.  A pit implies no way of getting out unless someone lifts us out.  God takes us out of the pit and puts us back on solid ground. 

The rest of verse 4 and all of verse 5 are the fringe benefits of accepting the position with no responsibilities and all benefits.  I receive lovingkindness and compassion.  The owner not only pays my debts, gives me my base salary, but he gives me the kind of fringe package that I could never possibly imagine.  There is a software company in Northeast Ohio that everyone wants to work for.  It has a barber shop, a masseuse, a pool table, a gourmet cafeteria, and numerous other benefits.  The fringes almost outweigh the base package.  God's fringe benefits are his unlimited love and compassion.  He adopts us into his family - think prodigal son who not only accepts his wayward son but gives him the best robe and kills the fatted calf.  Verse 5 may be the best fringe of all.  It is an intangible benefit.  God satisfies your years with good things so that you are renewed!  I have a daughter getting married in a few weeks and it has just renewed me.  I get a new son-in-law!  It is reflection - it is renewal.  Maybe it is a beautiful sunset or hearing the birds singing in the morning.  So many little intangibles God blesses us with. 


I was wrong earlier.  The owner does want us to do something.  His sole requirement of you is that you let others know of the same deal.   Would you hoard the 52 week vacation deal to yourself or would you want to tell others about it?  Wouldn't you do it?