Work Can be a Dangerous Thing

I grew up in a family of working people. My father worked around his hometown of Livingston, Texas. He worked constantly to earn his way through college. Then he went to seminary and began working in ministry positions.

When my brother and I were young, he started us working too. At the house, in the yard, then odd jobs around the neighborhood. We didn’t like it, mind you, but my father didn’t give his boys much choice in this matter.

My father believed in working hard. His used to say, “If you are getting paid for an hour of work, you ought to give a good hour of work.” “Work hard and steady until the job is done.” His favorite motto was, “Any job worth doing is worth doing right.”

My father understood that when Christian people show up at their jobs and vocations and do good work, it is a reflection on their Christianity. Integrity at work is a powerful witness to the truth of our faith. He’s right in this.

But there is another side of work that I want to mention. Sometimes people whose personal worth is tied up in their jobs and in their performance at work can take things too far. If you reach a place in life where you aren’t comfortable unless your are working, you are in danger. If you sit around in the evenings after working for 10 hours, and you can’t think of anything to do, you are in danger. If you can’t concentrate on your time with your children because you are thinking about work you’d like to be doing, you are in danger.

You are in danger of becoming a workaholic. I know, because I am one. I don’t know how it happened, but somewhere in my 30s, I found it increasingly difficult to enjoy leisure time because I would be so worried about the work I was facing the next day or the next week. The easiest way to comfort that worry was to sneak over to the computer and do a little of the work that night or on the weekends.

I wish I could tell you that I found a cure for this, but I haven’t. All I have done so far is notice the problem. Sometimes I force myself to spend time with my children, even when some crazy voice inside me says, “You should be working.” I’ve seen this demon and named it. I’m hoping God will help me cast it out.

Workaholism is no joke. It’s a real addiction. And though workaholics often do good work (of course they do. They LOVE work), that kind of working does not honor God. Our God is the God of Sabbath and rest. And unless you find the natural rhythm of work and rest, you do not honor God’s beloved creation - you!

Today is Monday. I imagine many of you going off to work this week. Me too. So I say let’s hard until the bell rings. And then let’s go home and rest and be with our families. And when the weekend comes, find time to do nothing at all. Doing nothing and resting is a part of your High Calling as well.

Here’s the scary part. I’m going to try hard to work AND rest this week. Next Monday, I’ll tell you how I did with is. I admit, I’m a little nervous about this. But I’ll be honest. Those of you who have similar issues, why don’t you join me? Tune in next Monday and let’s see how we all did.

Until then,

Real Live Preacher

Around Our Network…

I found some great stuff around the High Calling network today. That’s no surprise. I’m always astonished and delighted by the wisdom that comes together when you give Christian people a chance to have a say.

Red Letter Believers addresses a fascinating issue. Just how much do you expect your workplace to make allowances for your Christianity? And what will be the benefit or harm if you complain about it.

24 Seven Faith reminds husbands that along with honoring God in the workplace, honoring the Creator by honoring your spouse is also a high calling. He has a particularly moving personal story to tell in this regard.

The Suburban Christian reminds us that our culture will constantly be pushing us to consume and to produce items of poor quality. He discusses the concepts of planned obsolescence and perceived obsolescence. Fascinating stuff.

And, if it is okay to point to my own blog sometimes, Real Live Preacher has a tender story online about a man whose life was born out of tragedy and evil. He has discovered the proper perspective. As he says, “The blood of Jesus and good living has covered those sins.”

Enjoy!

Gordon Atkinson - Real Live Preacher.

In Praise of Something Simple

Simplicity is not a new concept. Henry David Thoreau dreamed of keeping his accounts on his thumbnail. For centuries people have known that simple solutions are often the best solutions. What about when it comes to seeing God? Do you need a sermon from a Ph.D. minister, or would the simple words of a working woman do the trick?

In the case of Merrie Destefano, simple words from a working woman will do just fine.

Sometimes I see Him in the small places, the intricate pen and ink details. The prayer of a friend when I’m lost and confused. The smile of a stranger in the tangle of a crowd. The glimpse of an inspirational bumper sticker on the freeway. Read More.

Alien Dream - Merrie Destefano is the editor of Victorian Dreams magazine.

Holy Week Thoughts Around the Network

A number of High Calling Bloggers have posted reflections on Holy Week and Easter.

The Suburban Christian notes that this is the next time St. Patrick’s day will fall in Holy Week will be 2160. He presents us with St. Patrick’s famous prayer.

My Simple Point of View asks a simple question.

Spaghettipie asks about your Easter traditions.

Holy Experience invites us to read and meditate on the story of the last supper.

Mark Roberts offers a reflection on the words of Jesus from the cross. “My God, why have you forsaken me?” and “I am thirsty.”

Portrait of a Writer offers us a number of ideas for Easter.

L’Chaim writes of art and theology and Holy Week.

C.S. Humble offers a meditation on the road to Emmaeus passage.

Yeah, But Do You BELIEVE It?

The whole premise behind the organization that calls itself “The High Calling” is that we serve God through our daily work. It’s the idea that the Church is not a gathering of believers on Sunday morning but the sum total of redeemed people carrying the love of Christ into the world with their lives every day.

I’ve never met a serious Christian who would deny this truth. Never. It’s a thing we all like to say. Sometimes we even say it having trudged off to church on Sunday morning following a dreary week in which we never once gave thought to God or how our working lives did or did not honor God. The idea that The Church universal does the most important part of her work in our lives Monday through Friday is easy to conceive but harder to believe. Or we could say it this way: Our minds grasp the idea of the high calling of our daily work, but our guts, our emotions, are still lagging behind.

Does that ever happen to you? You know something is true, but you don’t “feel” its truth. You can’t get there emotionally?

Writer J. Schaap is one of our High Calling bloggers. He is a Christian and a writer. Recently he wrote a piece where he lets us listen in while he asks himself if he truly believes that he honors and worships God with his writing. Check it out.

…I’m not so sure I buy it. I’m certainly not talking to God when I’m writing fiction, although I will admit that some pure mystery comes into play in the whole creative process. Honestly, most of the time I’m working on fiction, I don’t believe I’m thinking all that much of the Lord God almighty. I’m just trying to find the best way out of a narrative.

But then, I suppose we could expand definitions a bit and say that woodworking and having faith—or gardening or factory work or teaching college students and having faith—are all forms of prayer too. We could say that, and when we do, it helps. Read More

Stuff in the Basement - Writer & educator J. Schaap writes about life and the things that matter to him.

What Is the Strangest Job You’ve Ever Had?

What is the strangest job you’ve ever had? And what did you learn from it?

Today, at HighCallingBlogs.com we’re announcing our first Group Writing Project Meme:

The guidelines for our first group writing project are simple:
[Read more]

Junior Theologians

Art Linkletter was right. Kid’s say the darndest things. And they say the darndest things about God sometimes. If I close my eyes and think, I can remember a lot of the things my own kids said about God when they were smaller.

“What do God’s feet look like?”

“Does God have a yellow beard? I think he does.”

“Is Santa Claus like God?”

“I don’t want to talk to God because I don’t want him looking at me.”

Some of their questions and answers are less than orthodox, but somehow we know that God is delighted when the least of these begins asking questions and making observations. What is that if not theology?

J. Schaap posted a delightful piece about his grandson, who apparently loves carrots more than life itself. Take a peek as this little boy has his first experience with some deep questions of meaning and theology.

Our four-year-old, towhead grandson has a thing for carrots. Yesterday, Sunday dinner, he had four helpings—doesn’t hurt, of course, that his grandma slathers them in butter and brown sugar. The fourth installment came after a caramel ice cream sundae sprinkled with tiny candy bits that are more fun than meaningful.

After all of that–after three helpings and a whole hamburger and a caramel sundae, he reaches, one more time, for the carrots, now scrumptiously room-temperature, then piles a dozen or so on his plate, and starts in again.

That’s when he blurted it out. “I love carrots more than God and more than the whole wide world,”…Click here to read more.

Stuff in the Basement - Writer & educator J. Schaap writes about life and the things that matter to him.

Temptation Story for Lent

Gordon Atkinson (Real Live Preacher) has written a dramatic re-telling of the temptation account from Matthew 4:1-11 in three parts.

“Psalm 91 - One of my personal favorites. How does it go again?”

The man closed his eyes and pressed his palms together as if in prayer. He bumped his thumbs repeatedly against his lip.

“Oh yes, I remember. ‘Whoever sits in the refuge of the Most High shall dwell in the shade of the Almighty. No evil will befall you, nor any plague come near you. He will charge his angels, concerning you, and they will catch you and lift you up, lest you strike even your heel against a stone.’”

“Lovely verse. So hopeful. So ridiculously hopeful in light of the considerable evil that has befallen the woeful children of Israel over the years. But never mind that. The point is, do you intend to stand by your claim? Will you indeed live by every word that comes from the mouth of God?”

“Of course,” said Jesus.

The man smiled. “I expected nothing less.”

“Well then, here is my idea. You know the top of the temple mount? Well, of course you do. The corner by the wall. The one with the terrifying drop - down, down, down, into the Kidron valley. Why it must be three or four hundred feet to the bottom.”

The man’s eyes came alive. He leaned forward and put his hands on the ground so that he was on all fours. He moved toward Jesus like a cat stalking its prey.

“Now what you and I will do is go there at a prearranged time. We’ll announce that you’re going to give a speech or sermon or devotion or whatever. One of those things you people like to do. Then, after a dramatic pause, you’ll LEAP from the temple, falling to what seems to be a certain death.”

Read part one, part two, and part three.

Teach Your Children Well

As the father of three daughters, I have become mindful of the negative effect that our culture’s skewed idea of beauty plays on their development. It’s not enough that we elevate a female body type that is in the minority, call it normative and beautiful, then praise it in every commercial and on every television show. That’s not enough. Even the women on television and on billboards have been retouched to achieve a level of “perfection,” that is in fact impossible. The truth is, no girl or woman can live up to the ridiculous standard of beauty that has become our cultural ideal.

It doesn’t help matters that our sons are being exposed to this as well.

Here are two disturbing videos from YouTube that illustrate the point. Hat tip to High Calling Blogger “Deep Thoughts by Gman” for drawing these to my attention.

Watch the first video carefully. An average looking woman is transformed by a professional team of makeup artists into the kind of woman you see on television, in magazines, and in advertisements of all sorts. However, even the makeup team isn’t enough. After the photo shoot, watch as a Photoshop expert doctors her photo even further, creating an image that is scarcely human.

Then watch the second video and consider the little girls of our culture who are bombarded with these images all of their lives.

What’s to be done about this? I have friends who sequester their sons and daughters, trying to shield them from these horrible messages the world would give them. And certainly a lot of parental filtering and guidance is in order. But sadly, this is the world we live in. Your daughters and your sons will be influenced by our culture’s ideas of beauty.

I’d like to suggest that conversation is the best weapon you have. You must talk to your children. You must talk about beauty and the silliness of painted and made-up figures of women. You must show them videos like these and surround them with other adults whom they love and respect and who will reinforce a real message of beauty. For our daughters, we find these other adults at our church community, which is a bastion of sanity in a world that has lost tough with reality. At church our daughters are surrounded by adults who love them and who have good ideas about what real beauty is. Our church follows up our conversations with a message of God’s grace and love. We’re hoping that between my wife and I and our faith community, our girls are getting the message.

Teach your children well.

Real Live Preacher.