OVERVALUING CHURCH MINISTRY

'This persistent assumption that church work is higher or nobler than "worldy" work (a form of neomonasticism) is the source of all kinds of evil.'

Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling, p.62.

LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE ASK YOU TO DO

'When someone calls, it means they think they have a need you can fill. This is the heart of vocation. Vocation is not being able to fulfil our desires, pursue our passions, or follow our bliss. Vocation is about being called by others to serve.'

Karen Swallow Prior; You Have a Calling, p.65.

OUR BUSINESS: CO-CREATION

'That is our calling: co-creation. Every single one us, without exception, is called to co-create with God.'

Madeleine L'Engle in Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Voaction in the True, Good & Beaitiful, p.13. 

THE POWER OF FANTASY

'My childhood was surrounded by a communal daydreaming, the richest sort of imaginative talk, that began this way - in work, in the misery of work, to make the work bearable and even pleasant. Such talk ranged all the way from a kind of sensuous realism to utter fantasy, but because the bounds of possibility were almost always ignored I would say that the impetus was always that of fantasy. I have heard crowds of men, weary and hungry and hot near the end of a day's work, construct long elaborate conversations on the subject of what would be good to eat and drink, dwelling at length and with subtlety on the taste and the hotness or the coldness of various dishes and beverages, and on combinations of dishes and beverages, the menu lengthening far beyond the capacity of any living stomach. I knew one man who every year got himself through the ordeal of the tobacco harvest by elaborating from one day to the next the fantasy of an epical picnic and celebration which was always to occur except, richly, marvelously, in the minds of his listeners.'

Wendell Berry, The Hidden Wound, p.44.

THE CREATIVE IMPULSE

'Every act of creativity is an intuitive response to offer back to God what has been given to us. We twist this intuition and may create something transgressive and injurious, but the source of the creative impulse is the Creator.'

Makoto Fujimura, Art and Faith, p.177.

A PARABLE FOR MAKING

'Here, then, is the central parable for our Making journey:

Imagine a father taking his child to the beach. The father watches his child make a sandcastle, which will be washed away by the high tide.

But the father happens to be an architect. Imagine that this father loves his child so much and is astonished at the design of the castle that is child has made.

Several years later, the child looks in amazement as the father creates a real castle that is based on the the sandcastle that the child created.

This may be close to what the New Creation will be like. God desires in God's heart to be with the child as the child plays on this side of eternity. God chooses, out of God's gratuitous heart, to co-create into the New World. There is no particular need for the architect father to create an actual building, but the father re-creates in love, and he has the power to do so. The New Creation is filled with such attentive, self-giving outworking of God's love toward us.'

Makoto Fujimara, Art and Faith, p.35.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MAKING THINGS

'I have come to believe that unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God's being and God's grace permeating our lives and God's Creation.'

Makoto Fujimura, Art and Faith, p.7.

WHAT WE SHARE WITH GOD

'The characteristic common to God and man is apparently...the desire and ability to make things.'

Dorothy L Sayers in Makoto Fujimura, Art and Faith, p.6. 

TRUE COMPLEMENTARIANISM?

'Any human endeavor done without the input, support, and cooperation of both sexes is not a fully human endeavor.'

Zachary Wagner, Non-Toxic Masculinity: recovering healthy male sexuality, p.180.

A HEALTHY WORK ETHIC

'He thought that pride in your work, no matter how modest the task, was the mark of a good man, so he mucked the cows out as if he were being judged on it every day.'
James Rebanks, English Pastoral, p.79.

HOW YOU REST DEPENDS ON HOW YOU WORK

'A man who works with his mind should sabbath with his hands, and a man who works with his hands should sabbath with his mind.' 

Abraham Heschel in Justin Whitmel Earley, The Common Rule, p.142. 

TANGIBLE ACHIEVEMENTS

'The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on. Boasting is what a boy does, who has no real effect on the world. But craftmanship must reckon with the infallible judgment of reality, where one's failure or shortcomings cannot be interpreted away.' 

Matthew Crawford in Peter Korn, Why We Make Things & Why It Matters, p.56. 

IN THE ZONE

'Through personal experience, acquaintance with hundreds of other craftspeople, and interaction with thousands of students, I have witnesses the pleasure and empowerment that skilled craftwork offers. There is a deep centredness in trusting one's hands, mind, and imagination to work as a single, well-tuned instrument, a centredness that touches upon the very essence of fulfillment. What better way to inhabit one's innate human capabilities productively and powerfully, like an engine firing smoothly on all pistons.'

Peter Korn, Why We Make Things & Why It Matters, p.53.

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE?

'Let the young soul survey its own life with a view to the following question: 'What have you truly loved thus far? What has ever uplifted your soul, what has dominated and delighted it at the same time?' Assemble these revered objects in a row before you and perhaps they will reveal a law by their nature and their order: the fundamental law of your very self.' 

Friedrich Nietzsche in David Brooks, The Second Mountain, p.98. 

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?

'We usually ask little kids, What do you want to be when you grow up? I wonder if we're setting them up for failure with that question. Maybe a better question is, Who are you? What do you think God made you to do when you grow up?' 

John Mark Comer, Garden City: Work, Rest and the Art of Being Human, p.73. 

LIVING THE SIMPLE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'Living Christianly is not complicated, though it is profound (and exceedingly difficult). The simplicity flows from the fact that everything commanded comes down to loving God and neighbor, while everything forbidden can be traced back to the worship of false gods, which places some other god before the Lord.' 

James M Hamilton Jr. Work and our Labor in the Lord, p.74. 

APPRECIATING BEAUTY

'I love all beauteous things,
I seek and adore them;
God hath no better praise,
And man in his hasty days
Is honoured for them.'
Robert Bridges, from 'I love all beauteous things' in A Choice of Bridges's Verse, p.55.

JESUS & THE SATISFACTION OF WORK

'When absorbed in work, clocks dissolve, mealtimes pass, and we hardly know where we are. The best work does not deplete our energy; it renews it. Jesus knew the experience. As he died on the cross, he exulted, "It is finished," and then delivered his spirit to the Father (19:30). "It is finished" can refer to Jesus' substitutionary atonement, but the phrase normally means just that - something is finished. Jesus finished his redemptive task by laying down his life. When Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me," he means that his work invigorates him. Since Jesus is the archetypal human being, we might be able to experience similar results.' 

Daniel M Doriani, Work: Its Purpose, Dignity, and Transformation, p.25. 

WHAT WORK DOES TO FAMILIES

'To be unhappy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.'
Samuel Johnson in David Gibson, Destiny, p.64. 

A LIFE OF PLAYFUL SERVICE?

'A life of Christian ministry. service, sacrifice and worship that does not embody, as part of it, the joy and delight of a playful relationship with God will become a duty bound and moralistic life that will have difficulty in developing a close, intimate relationship with the one who is our chief and best Friend. This is because a playful attitude lies at the heart of all close relationships. The absence of this kind of relationship has meant burnout for far too many Christians. Just as in everyday life work without play makes one dull, in the Christian life service without a playful relationship with God leads to spiritual dullness.' 

Brian Edgar, The God Who Plays, p.8.