ZONDERVAN Garden City Copyright © 2015 by John Mark Comer This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook. Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks. Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Comer, John Mark, 1980 – Garden city : work, rest, and the art of being human / John Mark Comer. — ​ 1 [edition]. pages cm ISBN 978-0-310-33731-7 (hardcover) 1. Theological anthropology — ​Chris tian ity. 2. Vocation — ​Chris tian ity. 3. Work — ​ Religious aspects — ​Chris tian ity. 4. Chris tian life. I. Title. BT701.3.C65 2015 248.4 — dc23 2015015500 All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible. Copy- right © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foun- dation. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permis- sion. All rights reserved. Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means — ​electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other — ​except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design: Ryan Wesley Peterson Interior design: Ryan Wesley Peterson Edited by Carolyn McCready and Becky Jen First printing July 2015 / Printed in the United States of America 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 2 7/30/15 4:25 PM The path Genesis 1 – 2 009 Welcome to the art of being human 017 Part 1: Work Kings and queens 033 A place called Delight 051 The unearthing of a calling 069 Everything is spiritual 093 Kavod 113 Kazam! Machine 133 Cursed is the ground 157 Part 2: Rest I am not a machine 183 The anti-Pharaoh 201 The Lord of the Sabbath 219 Part 3: The Garden City Life after heaven 237 The people of the future 253 Epilogue: Redefining greatness 273 Revelation 21-22 291 Notes 307 Thanks 321 About the author 323 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 7 7/30/15 4:25 PM Welcome to the art of being human The other day I was out for coffee with my friend Dave. I live in Portland, which is basically the best city for coffee in the world.1 Sadly, it’s not the best city for sunshine. It rains here. A lot. So we spend a large chunk of the year hibernating in coffee shops, waiting for that strange, yellow object in the sky to re-emerge. All of which leads me to Dave. Dave had asked if we could get together and talk about his fight with depression. Unfortunately, I’m a bit of an expert on the subject. My own tangle with depression was brutal and terrifying, but I made it through, and here I am. A better man P 017 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 17 7/30/15 4:25 PM because of it, oddly enough. I learned a fair bit through my years in the maw of the beast, and I’m always happy to help however I can.2 Dave wasn’t suicidal or anything, just unhappy. But he had no clue why. He kept saying, I don’t get it. I follow Jesus. And I have a great life. Why am I depressed? My take on depression is that it’s more of a symptom than a disease. That something in your life is causing the depression.3 So usually with somebody like Dave I start digging. What’s underneath the depression? The root under the ground? Dave was kind enough to put up with my interrogation — ​Are you sleeping enough? How are you eating? Do you exercise? Talk to me about your prayer life? How’s your marriage? I was relentless. But he couldn’t think of anything “wrong” with him. Then I started asking questions about his job. Do you like what you do? It’s a good job, he said. Yes, but do you like what you do? Do you wake up in the morning with a sense of anticipation? Of excitement for the day ahead? Well, no, not really. P 018 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 18 7/30/15 4:25 PM And for good reason. It turns out that Dave used to be a Navy Seal. Full on. He can hold his breath under water for like three days.4 After he got out of the Navy, he moved back home to Portland and took over his dad’s lighting business. It was a steady income. Great pay. He was able to buy a home and live well. Just one catch — ​he couldn’t care less about lighting. I mean, if you wanted a great deal on a commercial fluorescent, he was your man. But it wasn’t him. He went from a job push- ing his body well past the limit and risking his life every day to a cold metal desk with a laminate top and a computer stuck in Excel. So I asked Dave one of my favorite questions, If you could do anything, what would you do? He started to slide around in his chair. Discomfort was all over his face. Most of us are too scared to even think about that question. The odds of letdown are really high. In fact, you’re probably feeling like Dave right now — ​questions racing through your mind. What about the fact that billions of people in the world live hand-to-mouth? They’re lucky just to survive. Loving what you do is a luxury of the rich. What about the fact that even here in the US, unless you come from money, it’s incredibly hard just to eke out a living? The middle class is disappearing. Millions of Americans are under- Welcome to the art of being human P 019 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 19 7/30/15 4:25 PM employed — ​working minimum-wage jobs with a master’s degree from Stanford. American isn’t what it used to be. What about the fact that most people hate what they do? They dread work every day. It’s the epitome of toil — ​exhausting and difficult. These are all legitimate, intelligent questions, and we’ll get into them later. For now, set your anxiety aside. I want you to sit in the discomfort of my question to Dave: “If you could do any- thing . .” After an awkward silence, David said, Well, I guess I would love to be a police officer. So I asked the immediate follow-up question: Why don’t you just quit? Give it a shot? He immediately started into a litany of reasons why he couldn’t do that — ​the family business, his father was depending on him, his wife, safety as a dad, and so on. Even though he was a bit nervous, I felt like we were on to something. At the end of our conversation I just said, Dave, here’s what I would do: go home. Talk to your wife and then your dad. Think and pray. Why don’t you at least try? Now, fast-forward about six months. I hadn’t seen Dave in a while and never heard back on our conversation (okay, so I’m P 020 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 20 7/30/15 4:25 PM a lousy friend). But the next time I ran into Dave, he was beam- ing. It was obvious something had changed. Turns out, he did it. He quit the family business, and his dad was just fine with it. And he got a job with the local police department. He had to start at the bottom, but for the first time in years, he woke up before his alarm. Dave was the same guy. Same wife, family, church, city, exer- cise routine, coffee shop, lawn to mow, dentist. All that changed was his job. What he got up to do every day. Why is that? How could something as mundane and ordinary as a job change everything for Dave? I would argue it’s because what we do is central to our humanness. What’s the first question we usually ask somebody when we meet them? (After we get a name and fumble through a few awkward sentences about the weather.) “So, what do you do?” Granted, that’s likely more of a guy question. Women usually ask, “Are you married? Single? Have any kids?” — ​questions about relationships.5 Welcome to the art of being human P 021 9780310337317_GardenCity_int_HC_5th.indd 21 7/30/15 4:25 PM But they are essentially the same question: What are you giv- ing your life to? When you wake up every morning, what is it you do with your small ration of oxygen? There’s a nasty rumor floating around the church right now, and it sounds something like this: “It’s who you are that mat- ters, not what you do.” Really? Where do the Scriptures teach that? It’s true that some of us look to what we do for our identity and a sense of self-worth.