Entries Tagged 'faith and work' ↓

Note to readers: I’m still buried, but my Editor-in-Chief, Dan Roloff, asked me to post my notes from the staff devotional I led yesterday. So here they are. If you haven’t been to Dan’s blog in awhile, it’s worth a look. His posts have a lot of substance, but are still bite-sized in length. Unlike this one…

I’ve been thinking about our categories on TheHighCalling.org a bit lately. Starting with the first one from the left: Attitude. We even have a vision statement for helping people understand the importance of attitude:

Oswald Chambers says, “Moods don’t go by praying; moods go by kicking them.” Our words and actions come out of our attitudes. We shouldn’t let circumstances shape our perspective. Instead, we can use a good perspective to shape our circumstances.

That sounds nice, doesn’t it? So I was wondering. Is it biblical? Are we relying on some trendy truth to assemble that vision or does it flow from the eternal truth of the Bible?

The concept of attitude is hard to find in the Bible. It seems to be more of a 20th and 21st century concept, but two words stuck out as I was browsing through my Bible programs.

• phroneō - from verses like Romans 12:1-3. (You can see where that word appears in the Greek by going to the Blue Letter Bible and scrolling down to the Strong’s Concordance for phroneō)
• ennoia - from verses like Hebrews 4:12.

Dan is interested in phroneō, but that verse in Hebrews got into my head.

You see, the writer of Hebrews tells us how to keep our attitudes in check. He writes, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (4:12).

Without looking at the context, this sounds like a simple call to study the Bible. “The word of God… judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” But look at all of chapter four when you get a chance. It is a chapter about people who don’t obey God’s call to enter into his rest.

Earlier in the passage, the writer discusses Joshua, concluding that he was not able to lead God’s people into rest. Barnes’ Notes explain that “Joshua ‘did’ give them a rest in the Promised Land; but it was not all which was intended, and it did not exclude the promise of another and more important rest.”

Growing up, I learned a lie about rest that I’m still trying to unlearn. I was taught that the Promised Land was an archetype for heaven. “To Canaan’s land I’m on my way, where the soul of man never dies.” I’m not going to quibble about the theology of these songs, but to my young brain they meant that God’s rest was something that came after I died. Salvation was a ticket to heaven.

In fact, I thought of heaven like a big ski resort because I loved to ski. When I got saved, baptized, prayed the prayer, got Jesus, whatever language or ritual you prefer to label it with, I knew I had a ticket to the resort. I got my lift pass. But I’d have to spend the rest of my life waiting for the resort to open.

Even worse, I didn’t grow up with any sense of eternal security. I was taught that my lift pass could be taken away if I wasn’t good. That’s a scary burden for a teenager, let me tell you. Thankfully, I didn’t think about it too much.

What I did was work much too hard. I figured if I just worked hard enough, I’d prove to God that I deserved to keep my lift ticket. My faith would be real through my works—just like James says.

I’ve heard that Martin Luther wanted to rip James out of the Bible. And to be honest, I understand why when I look at chapter two. Faith without works is dead. That can be twisted into some seriously scary stuff.

You know, James 2 goes right along with Hebrews 4 in some ways. The author of Hebrews says,

If Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath—rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

As a kid, I took that line about making every effort to enter God’s rest a little too literally. I still do.

Let me be honest. I’m not good at resting. In my heart, despite myself, I still believe that the Promised Land comes when I die, that Salvation is a golden mystical crown in a city full of Revelation weirdness. In fact, I look for passages about adjusting my attitude, and find a work ethic prescription right there in Hebrews:

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (4:12).

So I think to myself, the Bible itself helps me judge the thoughts and attitudes of my heart. Great! All I have to do is get up earlier. Study more. Work harder. And I’ll find that attitude of rest.

But I’m pretty sure that’s not what this verse means. Sure, reading the Bible is a good thing. It helps me get my head on straight—and surely attitude has a lot to do with keeping a right perspective. But Hebrews doesn’t say the Scripture helps us judge us judge. It says the “word of God” helps us. The logos from John 1 who was in the beginning. Certainly, the “word of God” means Scripture, but it also means much more than that.

And in this context, the word of God seems to mean something even more specific than Jesus himself or Scripture itself. It also means a specific word from God about rest.

God calls us into his rest.

This reminds me of a little video that’s been a big hit in our house lately.

When my mother-in-law watched this with us, she was horrified. The song does trample on the protestant work ethic a bit. But I think there’s more to it than that.

Somehow, like in the little song, my work flows out of my rest. So that I say, “Oh yes, I also practice trumpet everyday.” Or “Oh yes, I also edit words everyday.”

When editing words or practicing trumpet becomes work—that’s because I’ve forgotten to let God’s rest permeate everything I do. Surely, there’s no better prescription for adjusting my attitude than that? We’re talking about the ultimate attitude adjustment here. Work itself includes rest. This doesn’t mean we don’t also take time off.

Our culture idolizes work in some ways.

I need to unplug from the computer on Sunday. I need to have no agenda on Sunday. I need to go see Kung Fu Panda with my son on Sunday with no agenda except to laugh and laugh and stop for Chinese food on the way home.

Simply put, it is easier to have a positive attitude in our work and our daily lives—an attitude of rest—when we obey God’s specific call to rest.

Last summer about this time, I had the rare privilege of talking with one of my personal heroes on the phone, Parker Palmer. His book The Courage to Teach was reprinted with a special 10 year anniversary edition.

You can read my interview with Parker Palmer over at TheHighCalling.org. It just went live.

Five years ago, this book changed my life. I still keep the original copy nearby. My mother-in-law gave it to me. She was a life long educator and wrote this beautiful inscription on the inside cover:

…because courage and worth make the journey together…
…and because teaching is the most noble of all the professions…
…and because I believe you have the soul of a teacher…

Sometimes it makes me sad that God called me out of a teaching for a season. But I still have the heart and soul of a teacher, and I try to let that come through in the way I go about editing, blogging, and writing.

In his book The Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer writes,

Good teachers join self and subject and students in the fabric of life. Good teachers possess a capacity for connectedness.

Five years ago, in my copy of the book, I drew a red box around the word “connectedness.”

On the facing page, Palmer has written that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”

Since I’ve been with Mr. Butt, I’ve learned that NO JOB can be reduced to technique. Every job becomes a high calling when we bring our identity and integrity to our work.

This week, don’t forget to draw a red box around the word “connectedness” in your work. Good work comes from your identity and your integrity. When you bring those to a job, you invite a kind of deep connectedness with the task, the process, the product, and the people who work alongside you.

Sure, this kind of connectedness is risky. That’s why it takes courage. To teach, to write, to edit, to sell groceries, to manage a business, to see patients, to practice law, to raise children, to make movies, to make music, to sell goods and services, to prepare food.

To accomplish any kind of work with integrity and authenticity and community is risky.

But the rewards far outweigh the risk.

The first HighCallingBlogs.com meme is spreading around the net. We’ve got people reflecting on lessons from some really odd jobs - a BBQ busboy, a Venus Fry Cook (not really), a sorter of phone cords (phones have cords?), and one really frightening picture of gas masks.

Drop by our main page to read some of these fun articles and insights.

And if you’ve ever had an odd job, write about it! Then shoot me an email so I can include you in the group. My Editor-in-Chief for TheHighCalling.org has tentatively agreed to let us publish the best meme entry on TheHighCalling.org. It could be you!

I’ve been talking to Ken Mann a bit via email lately. He directed me to this video that wrestles with relativism and the human need for absolute truth–and a rowdy discussion of the video over at ThinkingChristian.

The video is not quite three minutes. (Click here if it won’t load.)

So here are my thoughts and questions for you.

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A few months ago, I had the opportunity to interview Francis Collins for TheHighCalling.org. (You can read part one here.) Dr. Collins is the author of the New York Times hardback and paperback bestseller, The Language of God.

As far as I’m concerned, this book should be required reading for all Christians.

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At Laity Lodge, we’ve had a close connection to J. I. Packer for many years. Every year, I get the chance to hear this man speak and open the Scripture. At first, his style seemed dry to me, but gradually I came to appreciate the incredible wisdom he has. One Laity Lodge director described listening to Packer as being something akin to drinking from a firehose.

In the first ever posted Laity Lodge video, here’s J. I. Packer describing his calling to write. (I’d be curious what you think of the video, too.)

At FastCompany this month, Clive Thompson asks, “Is the Tipping Point Toast?” He makes a good point that “your average slob is just as likely as a well-connected person to start a huge new trend.”

Why should any readers of GoodWordEditing.com care?

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Tina Howard, aka spaghettipie, interviewed me recently for her blog Stewardship Living, in which I hand out advice with shameless self-importance. Like this:

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I love Randy Ingermanson. Let me just start there. I’m very excited to be presenting at Mt. Hermon with L. L. Barkat in part because it means I also get to participate in Randy’s fiction workshop. In fact, I finally went and got Oxygen, a book I’ve been meaning to read for sometime.

That said, I found myself resisting Randy’s latest post at Advanced Fiction Writing…

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For Christmas, the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Folks are featuring the second issue of the ezine Wayfarer’s Journal. The journal has had a bit of a slow start, only publishing two issues last year, but there are a few stories and poems to browse through.

My favorite elements of the site are nonfiction. For example, Brandon Barr’s discussion of Christian themes in Cordwainer Smith or Terri Main’s article on Luke Skywalker vs. St. Luke (great title). Terri Main concludes, “In all literature a character’s Christianity should set him or her apart from non-Christian characters. They must not only believe differently, they must also act differently. That means that they cannot use carnal weapons, either figuratively or literally, to win a spiritual war. They cannot confuse the agents of the enemy for the enemy himself.”

Now, that makes me think. I agree with the sentiment, but I wonder what kind of advice that becomes for someone who is sitting down to tell a ripping good yarn.

On their home page, Wayfarer’s Journal states that their mission is to “publish and review science fiction with a spiritual dimension.” Although that mission only implies that they are looking for ripping good yarns, focusing on the spiritual dimension is still a worthy, ambitious goal.

And it raises an important question for writers of Christian science fiction–or Christian fantasy, Christian fiction, Christian poetry, Christian drama, even good old fashioned Christian nonfiction.

What makes something spiritual?

(Keep reading, and I promise I’ll get to the picture of the fishheads.)

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