The birth of my son in close proximity to Labor Day has led me to reflect some on the value of life as it relates to work, effort, and productivity.
Pregnancy and childbirth come to mind as particularly interesting examples. My wife, Alyssa, definitely worked hard over the last nine months to facilitate the growth of a human being from nothing (or as she puts it, putting some goo together to make a person). I saw her practice humility, steadfastness, and endurance in the midst of tiredness, fatigue, frustration, and impatience. I saw her industriousness as she learned about how best to care for a fetus through her diet, how to prepare for birth and motherhood, and how to challenge her husband to love, serve, and provide better.
Alyssa also worked diligently in the hours prior to Levi's worldly debut. I could see the strain that each contraction during active labor took on her body and her nerves. I saw her fatigue from hunger while she was restricted from eating. I saw the agony of enduring physical and emotional pain for an uncertain outcome in an intimidating hospital environment. And I saw the effort and pain it took to push out a human boy into the outside world.
In short, my wife worked hard to birth this baby.
Birthdays to Celebrate Life
But next year on August 29th, and every year after while God allows, when we celebrate Levi's birthday we will not celebrate my wife's industry. We will not eat cake that says 'Way to Conquer Childbirth, Alyssa!' Perhaps we'll reflect on it or remember it, but we will be far more preoccupied with celebrating Levi himself. Not because he did something worth celebrating, but because his life is worth celebrating.
Levi is beautiful. It's so fun to watch him and listen to him adjust to earthly space and struggle with breathing air and having hands that don't just float. Feeling his warmth is incredible. Alyssa and I love Levi. He hasn't done anything to earn our love. He has the same squished potato face as every other baby. His role in his birth was minimal, mostly reactive. He will only cost our family money for many years. He can't yet help with the chores. At this point he can't even hold his own in conversation. There's no telling what kind of person he will be or how long he'll be on this earth.
Why do we love him? Why is birth worth celebrating?
We love him because he's a person. He's fearfully and wonderfully made and we experienced but a glimpse of it. As hard as Alyssa worked during pregnancy, she actually contributed very little to the actual creation of the baby. Yes, she provided a physical space to host him. Yes, she shared nutrients and blood with him. But no, she did not assemble his nervous system by hand. No, she did not pick his temperament and program it into his soul. She did not carve his visage or tune his ear canal. She did not actually create Levi out of nothing.
The fact of Levi's creation offers much insight into why we celebrate his birth instead of Alyssa's birthing. Levi is a living human being with personality that we've noticed for months. He's alive. He is a life. And life is worth celebrating. By some small probability, a life was formed nine months ago. Out of pretty base material, too. Practically nothing (that's what I contributed to his birth).
And on this Labor Day (which was not, to the dismay of cosmic irony, the day Alyssa went into labor) I want to reflect on the value of life for life's sake, not for the sake of its measurable worth.
God's Love for the Unworthy
I've spent most of my life finding my worth in what I do, and I have measured my value in my achievements. I felt valuable as a child because people told me I was smart, I got good marks in school, and I believed I was worthy of a great life. I have felt deep depression at times in my life when I felt I was not worthy enough of the excellence ascribed to me by others and myself. I have felt the oppression of ennui in the midst of unproductivity and lack of accomplishment and a lack of feeling important or valuable because I wasn't doing anything important or valuable.
Fortunately, God met me in my unwillingness to value my life for what it is. God loves me not for what I've done; in fact, He's quite adamant that it's in spite of it. My pursuit of worth and ambition led me to reject life's intrinsic value and place a conditional, utilitarian value upon it. It was selfish sin like this that showed my choice of death over life. But God showed that His love is not merit based, or even preferences based--He loves me in spite of my misdeeds. He loves me so much He sent His son Jesus to die on behalf of people like me, people who don't value the life he created, who want to outdo do Him, or do without Him. God's goodness is so deep he would bear the death I deserved to give me true life and to call me to live a life of obedience to that which is good and not that which is self-serving. Jesus is real life--love in human form. Sacrifice for the unworthy is the ultimate expression of love--valuing life at the expense of your own comfort. Jesus's sacrifice was not worthless, but effectual in paying the penalty for sin and restoring life to the lifeless. Sacrifice should therefore be for the advancement of life, not for the show of martyrdom or self-righteousness. Which brings me back to baby and Labor Day.
Love of Life
My wife and I are more than happy to 'sacrifice' for Levi (see above for how Alyssa has sacrificed). We've already lost plenty of sleep, and will lose plenty more. He's already incredibly expensive and will only ever incur more costs. He may not respect me or like me or be the kind of man I want him to be (likely a future blog post). But I will love him and will give what I have to do so. I will sacrifice many comforts and conveniences for his sake.
And thus I hope to approach my career. I don't want to work for the sake of accomplishment (e.g., financial success, recognition of merit or creativity). And I don't want to work for the sake of sacrifice (hence why I left teaching). I want to celebrate life instead of celebrating work. As co-creators, I do value and appreciate much of the fruits of people's labor, and I'm so glad for the rest we get from Labor Day to celebrate the effort that goes into keeping us alive and interesting, but I want to remember to place work in perspective. Levi doesn't receive love on the basis of his work or the fruit of his efforts, and neither do I. God loves me because I am a life, because I am His creation, because I bear the image of a creator who is life and loves life, who is love and lives love out. I'm so thankful for Alyssa, who loves us both even though we have done nothing but ask of her life. But she gives so freely because she loves so greatly. And she loves much because she, too, is much loved. In marriage and in parenthood I've noticed that increasing the number of people who need my love does not diminish the quality of the love I give each person, but instead increases my capacity to love and reduces the selfish, sinful parts of me (often by exposing them painfully, first).
In short, today I celebrate life for life's sake, not for the sake of what life produces.
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