Paid to do, Made to do

A career is what you are paid to do.

A calling is what you are made to do.

- Howard Hendricks "Prof"

Howard Hendricks, Prof at DTS tells the following story -

I had one of the foremost surgeons in Dallas in my office a few years ago crying like a baby. When I finally got him under control, he said "Howie, do you think I ought to quit medicine and go into the ministry?" And then I wept with the realization that here was the most prominent and influential in his field and he didn't have a clue he's in the ministry.

This is the guy they call in when there's serious head injuries, he's the expert, the guy with the credentials, and he doesn't know he's in the ministry already. I can take you to the Southwestern Medical School and introduce you to numerous professors, students and former students who have become believers, or strengthened their walk with Jesus because of this man. And he didn't know he's in the ministry.

This guy has a ministry that I can't come close to!

You are living in a generation that is weary of words, but starving for reality. They have heard every rhetoric that has come down the pike, but when they see a man, particularly someone they respect, a good businessman, not someone who's perfect, but someone who is honest enough to say "I don't have it together, but let me tell you about someone who changed my life and in the process of continuing to do that everyday."


To that end.........

Insight - Jonathan Edwards and Work

In 1748 Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon titled

A Divine and Supernatural Light,

Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God,

Shown to be Both Scriptural and Rational Doctrine

One of the subtitles and content is

All Moral Knowledge and Business Skill from God

God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever. He is the author of knowledge that is obtained by human learning: he is the author of all moral prudence, and of the knowledge and skill that men have in their secular business. Thus it is said of all in Israel that were wise-hearted, and skilled in embroidering, that God had filled them with the spirit of wisdom, Exodus 28:3.

 Let's not forget that the subject of business and work have been on the hearts, minds, lips and pens for much longer than just our own existence.



Does my behavior reflect my belief?

If this is the only book you ever read,

you'll never understand this book

- Howard Hendricks

Taking a small break from "Why Work?" Below is a cut/paste from John MacArthur's James 1:26-27 sermon "The Belief that Behaves."

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/59-11/the-belief-that-behaves-part-3

I find it interesting in a couple of ways, one being - I'm reading Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" (the current English version…if you've read it, or tried!, you'll understand!)…..anyway…I love it when I've been pondering something and God shows it to me through another's teachings. Two - I struggle with bringing my behavior in line with "what I think I believe." And there it all lays in my ponderings of Bunyan's messages, engaging in Christian practice/application of life. (I used application because MacArthur did below)

More and more I understand what Howard Hendricks meant when he said, holding the Bible high above his head, "if this is the only book you ever read, you'll never understand this book."

To that point…….

John Bunyan, speaking of the wonderful glass which the shepherds of the delectable mountain  showed to Christian and Mercy, wrote "Now the glass was one of a thousand. It would present a man while looking one way with his own features exactly and turn it but another way and it would show one the very face and similitude of the prince of pilgrims himself. Yea, I have talked with those that can tell and have said that they have seen the very crown of thorns upon His head by looking into this glass. They have therein also seen the holes in His hands and His feet and on His side." So said Bunyan.

What he was saying is if you look into the Word of God you'll see two things. One, you'll see your own sin and two; you'll see your Savior. The man who continues looking into the mirror of God's Word sees in it things far more wonderful than his own face. Yes he sees his own face and he sees the sin on his own face, he sees his own filthy garments, he sees the spots and the stains on his life, but the longer he looks the clearer comes out of the glass the face of Jesus Christ, the thorn-crowned brow, the Christ on the cross, the Savior whose blood cleanses him from all that sin. And such a person who sees and then responds to Christ and then lives out the Word is blessed in the doing. Joshua 1:8 the Scripture says, "The book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. You shall meditate on it day and night and observe to do all that is written therein and then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success." The doer puts the Word into living. Enjoying the Word then is more than a momentary experience; it is the application of truth to a life time, to a life time. And any other reaction to the Word but doing it is self-deception, self-deception. And so many people are self-deceived.

To that end..........apply well and not be self-deceived.

Danny

Oh...and this time I really believe I'll get through Bunyan's classic.

Ponderings on "Why Work?" Number 8

God instructed Adam and Eve to expand the Garden

to the whole earth and to serve as His representatives...they

were eventually thrown out of the Garden for eating the

fruit, but they were still responsible for stewarding the ground.
- fm Joy at Work Bible Study

From Sayers argument of the 2nd Proposition: Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade - not outside it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest; It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word. The official Church wastes time and energy, and, moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do "Christian" work.

Ask someone "why work?" most people will answer - I like to eat - to provide for my family - to earn money to buy things - I have bills to pay. When pressed for more, the answers will include giving to charity - feed the poor - to tithe to the church - to support foreign missions.

But rarely will the answer to "why work?' include

God made me to work

Through my work I'm able to worship God

Work itself has deeply intrinsic value

God called me to work

My work is my ministry

In the thousands of pages written about the God and Work subject, the authors consistently give us scripture and correlation to our lives. Yet few outside that circle of authors will search this matter out. And thus, the work becomes drudgery, church becomes seemingly irrelevant and the two drift farther apart.

But it doesn't need to be, the two don't have to seperate.

To that end.........search the matter out.

In His glory, God conceals matters. The

glory of kings is to search matters out.
                                            Proverbs 25:2

Ponderings on "Why Work?' - Number 7

As renewed people, we have been given the

motivation and power to re-create the Garden.

- Joy at Work Bible Study

Sayers 2nd Proposition: It is the business of the Church to recognize that the secular vocation, as such is sacred. Christian people, and particularly perhaps the Christian clergy, must get it firmly into their heads that when a man or woman is called to a particular job of secular work, that is as true a vocation as though he or she were called to specifically religious work....

.......In nothing has the Church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments to find that, as result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends..

.......How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?

"How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?"

"How can anyone remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?"

Over the past 20 years I've read a few thousand pages about what-God-has-to-say-about-work, and Sayers is quoted in at least 1/2 of the books. Of the 4 Propositions she lays out in "Why Work?" I find this one the most telling.

And heart breaking.

Many many many people, especially men, never become or don't remain interested, much less engaged, in Church because of......Relevance.

They ask, "where's the relevance?" They might not know they're asking it, but they know there's something they aren't getting and they never connect, or they connect and move on. I go back to what Sayers says... The Church has allowed work and religion to become separate departments to find that, as result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends.

And we come to Church wanting to fill something we know is missing. And though the filling seems good, it sounds good, it doesn't stay connected with the rest of the week. Or when we (I'm talking majority, large majority) try to connect it, those leading us don't know how to keep it connected. They haven't been trained to connect it.

And yet, the Scripture is covered with the relevance. It's there, on almost every page -

Work. God has so much to say about our 9/10s.

But not talking about it, covers it up.

I was encouraged years ago to read through the Bible with a "work" mindset, to notice how much God writes about work. Sometimes the "Church" doesn't totally fill the need we have, and arguably is not supposed to.

That's when we must engage in our own studies and dig deeper, find the relevance, and not run.

To that end.....


Comments and dialog welcome...click comments below.

Ponderings On "Why Work?" - Number 6

But is is appropriate here to point out that man was created not

for leisure but for work, even in the state of innocence.

- Martin Luther, Lecture on Genesis 2:15

Sayers 4th Consequence of her 1st Proposition is that we should fight tooth and nail, not for mere employment, but for the quality of the work that we had to do. We should clamor to be engaged on work that was worth doing, and in which we could take a pride......The greatest insult which a commercial age has offered to the worker has been to rob him of all interest in the end-product of the work and to force him to dedicate his life to making badly things which were not worth making.

Genesis 2:15 states, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it." With that in mind, think about this statement from page 23 of the "Joy at Work Bible Study Companion"

As renewed people, we have been given

motivation and power to re-create the Garden.

This is the last of the consequences of Sayers 1st proposition that work is the thing one lives to do...the thing in which one finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.

I told my friend Dave Moore this week about how much I remember Max Anders giving a sermon on evaluation and correction (some 20+ years ago). Max said that he literally sees himself turning his head and looking over his shoulder to look at how well he's lived the Gospel. I don't remember the verses he's used, but this is the essence of a good evaluation and correction system....looking back on the path you've traveled these past minutes, hours........years.

I haven't fought hard enough, definitely not tooth and nail. Hopefully, through an agenda of robust evaluation and correction, that is changing.

To that end..........

Ponderings on "Why Work?" - Number 5

A quick reminder of the 1st Proposition: work is the thing one lives to do....the thing in which one finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.

The 3rd consequence of this proposition Sayers points out is - if we really believed this proposition and arranged our work and our standard of values accordingly, we should no longer think of work as something that we hastened to get through in order to enjoy our leisure; we should look on our leisure as the period of changed rhythm that refreshed us for the delightful purpose of getting on with our work..............We should all find ourselves fighting, as now only artists and the members of certain professions fight, for precious time in which to get on with the job - instead of fighting for precious hours saved from the job.


Hmmmmmmmm. (And I seem to be doing a lot of Hmmm lately) "...we should look on our leisure as the period of changed rhythm...."

As I think about my work, and how God brought me back to it, I must embrace it as His will. And, I'm finding more and more joy in it, more passion, more means of making a difference and a profit. Brother Lawrence, 17th century monastry lay member, wrote "Men invent means and methods of coming at God's love, they learn rules and set up devices to remind them of that love, and it seems like a world of trouble to bring oneself into the consciousness of God's presence. Yet it might be so simple. Is it not quicker and easier just to do our common business wholly for the love of him?"

....just to do our common business wholly for the love of him.."

I meet people that have choosen careers and every once-in-a-while someone that is in their calling. There's a big difference, even with those in vocational ministry; between picking a career and a calling. There's a big difference, but "in ministry" is THE calling of all Christian believers.

I pray that I offer myself to God through my work and it helps me find spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction.......after all, I spend most of my waking hours working. I pray that I focus on my calling and keep margins in place to help me stay in that rythm of my walk with Him.

To that end.......Amen.

Ponderings on "Why Work?" - Number 4

The work is not a building, place, book, system or tradition.
It's something living in our hearts and minds - if we find it.

- M. Nicoll

Keeping Sayers' 1st proposition in mind (see previous posting), the 2nd consequence she points out is "we have no clear grasp of the principle that every man should do the work for which he is fitted by nature. The employer is obsessed by the notion that he must find cheap labor, and the worker by the notion that the best-paid job is the job for him."

So I ask, can both be achieved?

Notice the author did not mention in this consequence the worker being suited for the job. Instead, she contends the worker is looking for the best-paid job, regardless of being suited well to it. Nothing from the worker or the employer about job-fit or enjoyment.

Can both be achieved? Yes, in theory, but rarely in practice. In practice, they conflict. Or seem to. (?)

What causes the conflict? Purpose? The purpose, the why, we work? Philosophers since Socrates have pondered the one thing man wants and have all concluded it to be.....joy (pleasure, fun, happiness). Thus, in this fallen world the more-than-common man and employer fail on the side of money. One typically wanting to get more, the other give less.. The pursuit of joy is usually substituted with the use of money to easy pain. Not all, but most.

Performing a job suited to one's nature, desire and/or passion normally goes out the door, until one takes or is force into a state of pondering. Something drives him to test, to evaluate and work toward the right goals...to adjust her dreams to God's will...."to do the work one is fitted by nature to do."

To that end.

Ponderings on "Why Work?" - Number 3

Biblical theology is practical to its core and it is heretical to promote, 

as theological institutions have for decades, unapplied theology.

- R. Paul Stevens

Ms. Sayers' 1st proposition: stated quite briefly, is that work is not, primarily a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker's faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental, and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God.

The author then offers consequences of her point, one being the "question of profits and remuneration." Personally, her 3 paragraphs containing 350 or so words are boiled into the following...

...the mere fact that a man will put loving labor into some hobby which can never bring him any economically adequate return. His satisfaction comes, in the godlike manner, from looking upon what he has made and finding it very good. He is no longer bargaining with his work, but serving it.

I don't care who you are...and we can, and will, debate other factors concerning wages and profits, but that statement is good. Really good.. With our hobby, what we love to just DO, we are serving that work. And work is good.

Our culture has taken a turn, it always does.....take turns, and isn't just fashionable that many are on paths of "finding our passion," "finding the life we love," "exploring our emotions," etc, etc. To seek what we want to be when we grow up....no matter what our age, has become important.

"His satisfaction comes, in the godlike manner, from looking upon what he has made and finding it very good." Setting with a group of businessmen this week, my friend Dale Miller, co-owner of Austin Fine Floors, asked the question

"if you could do any job you wanted, what would it be?" 

I was very surprised that 6 of the 7 men answered "what I'm doing. The job I have."

Pondering the answers the past 3 days, and in light of Sayers 1st proposition, the follow-up question should have been

"what if you weren't paid any money, would it still be the job you wanted? If not, what job, what work, would you do"

If money was out of the picture, would I work? What work would that be?

To that end....

Ponderings on "Why Work?" - Number 2

It is always strange and painful to have to change a habit of mind..

- Dorothy Sayers

Sayers asks "what is the Christin understanding of work?" and then follows with propositions arising from her doctrinal position: work is the natural exercise and function of man - the creature who is made in the image of his Creator.

That position mostly alludes me and when I happen upon it, and really start pondering it, like now...my thoughts run from "huh? to why don't I hear more about this, to...well Smitty...it's throughout the scripture. Pay attention."

Sometimes I get that far, mostly it continues to allude me, or me it.


During the past year I've been helping out from time-to-time at HCBC's Austin Job Seekers Network. Craig Foster runs an incredible program for 100 or so white collared (mostly), career minded men and women that come through there each week. Many, or most, have had there lives turned upside down by a sudden loss of job. Others have been in a constant turmoil of job changes their entire life.

We've all personally experienced, or had close family or friends, who've been without work, savings eroded, career path halted and seeming to end. It's tough, it brings about some strange thoughts and struggles and I don't wish it on anyone. Proverbs 25:2 says The glory of God conceals matters; the glory of kings is to search matters out.

The loss of a job, career and income can cause struggles that are difficult to search out.

Yet, so can any job, at any time. Many reading this are in jobs, and struggling. Why?

Work is a tough subject, a tough task and most want to embrace, tackle or run from it based upon its enjoyment and/or monetary fruits.

I pray that I ponder, dwell, at least THINK a bit more today on work being my natural function and how I'm made in the image of God, my Creator.

To that end....

Ponderings on "Why Work?"

We might be well-served to remember the ancient Hebrew word "avodah;" the Old Testament translates it three different ways - to work, to worship and to serve.

- David W. Miller 

Why work?

In some form or fashion I assume everyone asks himself this question. While in high school (40+) years ago(!) I remember a teacher, Mr. Casper, asking the question "if you were wealthy and didn't have to work, would you?"

My answer was "absolutely!" Johnny Snead snickered and said "no way."

All these years later, I don't know what made Mr. Casper ask this question but I can only assume he wasn't just wanting to plant the subject into his students' thoughts, but was pondering the question himself. Johnny? Well, he was much closer to reality than me.

Why Work? is the title to a small book Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957) wrote in 1947. Some would say Ms. Sayers, crime writer, poet, playwright and Christian humanist, was "ahead of her time." Without debating that right now, I will give in and say her style and thoughts resonated with many during her lifetime and many theology of work writers (Doug Sherman, R. Paul Stevens, David Miller, Os Guinness, etc) since. Resonates with me too.

This is the first in at least 12 posts where I'll be pondering the subject and Ms. Sayers writings on that question....Why Work?

Why work? What's the purpose of work? Should one ever stop working? Where's the balance to working your tail off, but depending upon God?

Augustine reportedly said work like it depends upon you and pray like it depends upon God.

I say "huh?, really?, work like it depends upon me?" Is that right, or is it pray AND work like it depends on God.

To that end....let's see what Dorothy has to say about this subject of Why Work? and the path these ponderings take.

PS...thanks to the Britt Harris and The Austin Christian Business Summit for the copy of Dorothy Sayers' Why Work?

Thank You Lord

The post I did on "integrating work into faith" has been impactful. On me.

I've been studying faith at work for over 20 years and I've never turned it around. Until now.

Work at faith.

I know. It doesn't sound the same. "Work at faith." There's something not right about it. I'm reminded of Jerry Bridges book "The Discipline of Grace." When Nolan Egbert gave me the book, I was taken back by the title. Still am.

Work at faith.

The thought takes on a meaning not entirely about "integrating work into faith." Work at faith.

That, I need to do more. Working on my faith. Growing my faith. Depending more upon my faith.

Integrating more of my work into my faith.

And the discipline of grace.

How does all this live out? How does it practice? How does it look and feel in living?

God Doesn't Care Who Wins the Football Game

There's been a lot of talk about Tim Tebow and his talk about his faith in Jesus.

There's been a lot written about what it means to be called to work but I've never heard it expressed as well as when I heard my friend Nolan Egbert describe Tim Tebow's actions on a recent football field; "Tebow was putting everything he had into every play. He was giving it his all and was physically and mentally wasted at the end. He was so exhausted he could hardly breathe on the sideline."

And this is from a man (Tebow) that has emphatically said "God doesn't care who wins."

Tebow's blend of prayer and work is an important example of being called to work and let's not let the hype over him and his faith cloud that practice.

I like the way a recent Wall Street Journal article about Tebow ended.... "But win or lose, Tim Tebow will compete hard—and when he's done, he will thank God and remind all of us that it's just a game." Click here to connect to article.

Blessed be Jesus' name and I pray that I will put as much into my work as Tim does.

Work, Faith and Integration

Integrate faith into work, or integrate work into faith?


Much has been said and written about faith and work in recent years, yet, most of it seems to be about integrating our faith into our work. Googling the subject also shows numerous intro lines with...."integrate faith into work" or something to that affect.

Is that not backwards?

Aren't we supposed to be integrating our work into our faith?

On Luke 9:25...will my work today show a wasted life? Not if I'm working for His eternal glory, and I'm satisfied in that.