The first time my wife and I were in Costa Rica, we experienced the wonder that is Arenal. Staying at an inn approximately two miles from this active volcano, we spent an evening with friends watching lava slither down its side while cannon-like echoes of the flaming boulders filled the night-time air. It was surreal, and it was also quite fortunate. Site of the volcano is usually blocked by cloud cover, especially at night, providing us a rare glimpse of Arenal's true majesty.
When we returned a few years later and stayed at the same bed and breakfast, we were not nearly as lucky. Cursed with cloud cover, we could only attempt to explain to the friends who were with us on this trip what we knew to be true. Our story seemed but a fairy tale. But we knew what we saw. We knew the truth of Arenal, despite the clouds.
I was reminded of this story while reading my children a short piece out of Sally Lloyd-Jones' masterful book, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing. The book is a collection of short devotional-type reflections on faith and joy and God aimed to be accessible to children. I must admit, they often hit home with me as well. One of the pieces is entitled "Clouds and Mountains and Stars." In it Lloyd-Jones describes how when it's cloudy, you can't see stars. Sometimes you can't even see something as big as a mountain, but that doesn't mean that it ceases to be there. She then drives home her point: "Feelings can be like clouds - they blow in and hide things from us. . . Our feelings come and go. But God stays the same. His promises still are shining."
Feelings don't change facts. What an appropriate message in the midst of a basketball season. Sports are and should be a deeply emotional affair. But that emotion shouldn't hide the truth. In one of the most frustrating evenings of the season, I forgot a lot of truths. I forgot that I had vowed not to run my mouth towards officials, since that's not my job as an assistant. I forgot that bad officiating doesn't make someone any less of a person, or any less of an immortal and immensely important being (as C.S. Lewis would say). I forgot that several hundred eyes were on me, and the words I want them to associate with me include steadfast Christian character. I forgot in my anger that later that night I would go home and still have a great family, a great home, and a great job. Obviously it was a cloudy, cloudy night.
We should feel. We should feel intensely and deeply and be affected by those feelings. Feelings can and should drive us towards and away from all kinds of deeds. Enthusiasm and despair instruct. But they do not change the deep, rock-solid truths in our lives. That's why we need so desperately to remind ourselves of the truth and embed it into our minds when the sun is out. Then anger towards a spouse won't change the truth of their love. Frustration with children won't change the truth of their blessings. The infuriating actions of your boss won't change the truth of your paycheck and the good you do in your work. And the thrill of immediate pleasure won't change the long-term ramifications of your choices.
Gaze upon the volcano. Sit around a table and talk about it. Stand in awe. Share it. Stare some more. The next time you're there you might not be able to see it. But you'll know it's there. And you'll be glad.
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
Your Work Today Matters, and So Does the Way You Do It
The new year brings with it to blogs like mine posts filled with advice on making your resolutions successful. This is a worthy topic. However, often the goals we have for ourselves involve areas of our personal lives and even of our great passions. It was true of me in my goals of 2013: read books, write blog posts, and write letters. These were (and are) important aspects to me not only being the me I can be, but the me I most desperately want to be. Our resolutions tend to come from such a place.
What is rare to hear or read about, however, is how people intend to approach their job in the coming year. Goals at times involve occupation; however, those goals are typically based on obtaining new positions or climbing some ladder. What I want to take a look at here is an improved mindset for your daily duties, whether they are your passion or not.
Work is a hard thing to figure out; or at the very least, it's proven to be difficult for our culture to balance. On one end, work is what we complain about. We trudge through, survive, grumble about our boss, punch in and punch out, always looking for something better. On the other extreme, work is our identity. It is who we are, defining how others see us and the importance ascribed to us. High school kids are asked "what" they want to be, not "who." College students are told the perfect job, and therefore the perfect life, awaits them and is owed to them upon graduation. We alternatively bow down to this golden calf and curse it's control over our otherwise happy lives.
As always, there is a different way. I just finished reading How Then Shall We Work by Hugh Welchel. Through a study of the history of the views of work both in American culture and in the Christian tradition, Welchel examines how we are called to work. The answers, which should not be surprising, ask for a focus other than the self. The book is worth your time.
I've collected some of the passages I think are best and included them below. Hopefully you find them helpful in your approach this week to your vocation, whether it be part-time or full-time, a dead-end or a dream, with the famous or with your family. Enjoy:
1) The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes up on him is that he should make good tables.
2) From T.M. Moore: “So no matter what your job, or whatever your work might be, God intends that you should devote your labors to something greater than personal interest, economic prosperity, social good, or future beneficence alone. God intends your work to contribute to the restoration of the creation, and the people in it, to raising life on this blue planet to higher states of beauty, goodness, and truth, reflecting the glory of God in our midst.”
3) Because of the curse of sin, our work will be difficult, and we will not feel God’s pleasure all the time or at the level we will enjoy in the world to come. But we should feel satisfaction and joy from doing our best with what God has given us in the place where His providence puts us.
4) Alister McGrath regarding John Calvin: “Work was thus seen as an activity by which Christians could deepen their faith, leading it on to new qualities of commitment to God. Activity within the world, motivated, informed, and sanctioned by Christian faith, was the supreme means by which the believer could demonstrate his or her commitment and thankfulness to God. To do anything for God, and to do it well, was the fundamental hallmark of authentic Christian faith. Diligence and dedication in one’s everyday life are, Calvin thought, a proper response to God.”
5)The Cultural Mandate, according to Richard Pratt: “The Great King has summoned each of us into his throne room. Take this portion of my kingdom, he says, I am making you my steward over your office, your workbench, your kitchen stove. Put your heart into mastering this part of my world. Get it in order unearth its treasures; do all you can with it. Then everyone will see what a glorious King I am. That’s why we get up every morning and go to work. We don’t labor simply to survive, insects do that. Our work is an honor, a privileged commission from our great King. God has given each of us a portion of his kingdom to explore and to develop to its fulness.”
What is rare to hear or read about, however, is how people intend to approach their job in the coming year. Goals at times involve occupation; however, those goals are typically based on obtaining new positions or climbing some ladder. What I want to take a look at here is an improved mindset for your daily duties, whether they are your passion or not.
Work is a hard thing to figure out; or at the very least, it's proven to be difficult for our culture to balance. On one end, work is what we complain about. We trudge through, survive, grumble about our boss, punch in and punch out, always looking for something better. On the other extreme, work is our identity. It is who we are, defining how others see us and the importance ascribed to us. High school kids are asked "what" they want to be, not "who." College students are told the perfect job, and therefore the perfect life, awaits them and is owed to them upon graduation. We alternatively bow down to this golden calf and curse it's control over our otherwise happy lives.
As always, there is a different way. I just finished reading How Then Shall We Work by Hugh Welchel. Through a study of the history of the views of work both in American culture and in the Christian tradition, Welchel examines how we are called to work. The answers, which should not be surprising, ask for a focus other than the self. The book is worth your time.
I've collected some of the passages I think are best and included them below. Hopefully you find them helpful in your approach this week to your vocation, whether it be part-time or full-time, a dead-end or a dream, with the famous or with your family. Enjoy:
1) The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes up on him is that he should make good tables.
2) From T.M. Moore: “So no matter what your job, or whatever your work might be, God intends that you should devote your labors to something greater than personal interest, economic prosperity, social good, or future beneficence alone. God intends your work to contribute to the restoration of the creation, and the people in it, to raising life on this blue planet to higher states of beauty, goodness, and truth, reflecting the glory of God in our midst.”
3) Because of the curse of sin, our work will be difficult, and we will not feel God’s pleasure all the time or at the level we will enjoy in the world to come. But we should feel satisfaction and joy from doing our best with what God has given us in the place where His providence puts us.
4) Alister McGrath regarding John Calvin: “Work was thus seen as an activity by which Christians could deepen their faith, leading it on to new qualities of commitment to God. Activity within the world, motivated, informed, and sanctioned by Christian faith, was the supreme means by which the believer could demonstrate his or her commitment and thankfulness to God. To do anything for God, and to do it well, was the fundamental hallmark of authentic Christian faith. Diligence and dedication in one’s everyday life are, Calvin thought, a proper response to God.”
5)The Cultural Mandate, according to Richard Pratt: “The Great King has summoned each of us into his throne room. Take this portion of my kingdom, he says, I am making you my steward over your office, your workbench, your kitchen stove. Put your heart into mastering this part of my world. Get it in order unearth its treasures; do all you can with it. Then everyone will see what a glorious King I am. That’s why we get up every morning and go to work. We don’t labor simply to survive, insects do that. Our work is an honor, a privileged commission from our great King. God has given each of us a portion of his kingdom to explore and to develop to its fulness.”
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