Do right now well

Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a

distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand

- Thomas Carlyle

When I can't make a decision about tomorrow; I need to remember to just live for today. If today's too long; live in this moment.

Do right now well.

If it's a struggle, don't waste it. The struggle could be the prize and missing that prize would be a strategy. Don't stop three feet from gold.

Father, give me today my daily bread - Matthew 6:11

To that end

(this a re-post from Do right now well at www.DannyLSmith.com)

The four questions that will shape your destiny

There is no personal benefit in believing that there is

a God who cares unless we realize that He cares for us personally.

- Ed Silvoso

I read that statement, skimmed the chapter for the four questions and thought "true." As I then went about some other things, I started thinking "why was I so quick to agree, and who wouldn't?"

The realization that so many people don't know, or don't agree, or don't know enough, haven't searched out enough to agree - well, it's puzzling. And sad. But then, the way I act much of the time...if I really understood how much He cared, would I act that way? Would I have so much uncertainty? Would I be so..............!

Is there a God?

Does God care?

Does God care for me?

Does God care about what we do?

I know a lot of people who believe there's "a" God, but with each question get farther away from the real yes.

Heavenly Father. Give me today my daily bread. I know You are the one and only God, my Father, my Savior. Thank You Lord. I know You care and care for me, and I know you care about what I do.

Thank You for Your grace and mercy. Thank You for dying for me, for coming to life again and going to prepare a place for me. Thank You for sending Your Spirit to help me through the day, to provide that daily bread.

I lift up to You those reading this that don't know you. I pray they would come to know You through Your death on the cross. I pray we all come to know You closer and know how much You care for us.


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


(this is a re-post from The four questions that will shape your destiny at www.DannyLSmith.com)

If I ever write a book on "God and Work" it will be named..

Sacred Work: What If God Intended Work to Make You Holy More Than Happy?


These are some highlights of what I've learned about God's view of work over the past 23 years -

• God is a worker. Always has been, still is
• God created man and woman as His co-workers
• Before the fall, God created work
• Work is not the result of the curse
• nature of work is good, not evil
• work became hard after the fall
• Through work we,
• serve others
• meet our personal and family needs
• earn money to give to others
• take what God has made and re-create new products and services
• Christ's death did not change work, but the worker
• Ghrist gives the worker the opportunity to be back in the right relationship with God
• Christ wants to transform me as a worker
• The Hebrew word for "to work" "to serve" and "to worship" is the same
• In the New Testament, the focus of worship shifts from the temple to Jesus. Through my belief in Jesus, and with the help of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sent, I can worship God anywhere.

And, I've learned God wants me to have a proper balance with all areas of my life, including my family and resting.

And prayer. What a difference pausing and praying makes to my work, my life. That time in the morning, on and off during the day, it makes a difference that goes past happy.

So what if work is more about making me holy?

To that end.......

My name is Andre Agassi...I play tennis...and I hate it

"My name is Andre Agassi.....I play tennis for a living, even though I hate tennis. I hate it with a dark and secret passion, and always have." - from the opening paragraph of his autobiography "OPEN"

WOW! What a shocking statement from an incredible athlete who reached the pinnacle of his field.

How do you feel about your job? Do you hate your job/career, but continue to because of.......? Do you strive to be the best in the world at what you do, yet hate it? Agassi, while he hated playing tennis, he felt he had a job to do, a mission to fulfill. How do you feel about your job, or career? Do you feel you're called to do what you do? Do you struggle with the purpose - the why?

Or...are you just not sure why you don't do better than you do? ...your not sure what job you would even really want to do, even if you had a choice. You've heard about callings but have no idea what it means; you keep asking "what am I supposed to do with my life?"

Maybe you "I keep waiting for God to show me what he wants me to do, so for now I just do this."

Or...you're in the perfect job, but know you can do better than you do; you've leveled out, no longer and can't figure out why and not sure what to do about it.

Agassi's story is not unique. There are plenty who are incredibly good at what they do, yet dislike the job in some form or fashion. Yet, they're feel stuck.

Maybe you're not really that good at your job, don't have the best competencies? Yet through the efforts of yourself and/or boss/others, stay on the job or in the field.

Or...are you without a job and wondering all of this on top of needing to make your financial ends meet?

Genesis says "The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground....The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it..." (Gen 2:7, 15) And then sin happened and God cast man and woman out of the garden. In no uncertain terms He let them know things were going to be hard.

But God didn't cast us out without giving us some help. Part of that help comes from the Holy Spirit, Another part from the Bible, a book full of instructions though about life and work. A book about people working and how to make a bit of sense to the whole matter.

Help also comes from other men and women. Some who are pastors and teachers. Others who are friends. I've found teachers through many really good books on this subject of God and Work. Three teachers/authors are Addington, Graves and Maxwell. In their book Life@Work they help us identify and put together the fragmented parts of our lives.

The reader is asked "which of the following do you most identify with?"

- I'm fatigued from juggling two worlds

- I need more meaning from my work

- I need a clear picture of what being a christian on the job looks like

- I need a faith that makes a difference in my job and life

- I feel like I'm receiving no help connectin my worlds

Using the lessons from Life@Work we'll explore more about what the Bible says about work, jobs and careers in the coming weeks. You can also find more on this subject at http://godandworkmatters.blogspot.com/.

And we'll explore what it means to find,understand, accept and fulfill that mission.

I welcome your comments below, emails and calls.

To that end.....

Pondering..What I believe about work, God and certain matters

Ramblings -

- work is not always easy and many times hard

- sometimes it's very fulfilling, sometimes not

- God made humans to work

- God gave us authority over the earth

- God was working when He made the Heavens, Earth, man, woman, animals, things that crawl and things that swim, things that fly

- God is still working, 24/7

- God gave humans permission to work with His creation

- God sent His son Jesus to live and die for the sins of those who believe

- there's evil

- God calls me to glorify him in every circumstance

- God calls me to serve Him and His community

- God assigns me to certain work

- when Jesus said "go ye therefore..." He meant "as you go about..."

- I struggle with the God calls be to a "certain career/job" thought process. Really? Or is it more of a "here's what I want to do? where God has me today? where God is leading me? this is a good career move?" decision? Is it more of a "I like doing this, it energizes me" decision. If I'm trusting in God, looking to Him in everything I do, does it really matter? Just asking.

- What if work were more about making me holy instead of happy? Hmph. That's not good...philosophers since Socrates have pondered the question "what is the one thing man most deeply desires?" They've always come up with "happiness."

- What if work were more about making me holy instead of happy? What if.........

- If work is easy on too regular basis, I'm probably not growing

- Rest. Keller says if I don't have a good grip on the balance of work and rest, then I don't understand the true doctrine of work

- margins and routines. Both have become very important to me over the past 3 years. I'm much more productive and prayerful when I plan margins and work in routines (or rythms, hmmm...systems/ process)

- evil is trying to keep me from glorifying God through my work. Evil wants me to be cynical and judging and blaming. Evil doesn't want me to grow.

- Growing....why do we have to grow? We just do...we just grow; if not purposefully, then the way the wind blows us. The wind being our culture, our environment. We all change, which means we all grow...into something different than we are now.

- Work. Am I doing what God wants me to do? What does God want me to do?........Glorify HIM.

- Piper says "God is most glorified when we are most satisfied, in Him." Ok..if that is true - I'm glorifing God when I'm satisfied in Him when I'm working loans, leading masterminds, being energized, or not......."God is most glorified when I'm most satisfied, in Him."

Where has all this brought me this morning?

Work is sometimes hard, sometimes easy, sometimes fulfilling, sometimes draining, sometimes energizing, sometimes tiring - but when I remember Him; when I remember the pain He went through on that cross........even when I don't....when I have that feeling of just feeling good, and realize I'm satisfied in Him;

He's glorifed.

To that end...........I ask questions to dig deeper, to clarify, to know what He wants

Simply doing work in love

There may be no better way to love your neighbor, whether you
are writing parking tickets, software, or books, than to simply do
your work. But only skillful, competent work will do.
- Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf
in "Every Good Endeavor"

God tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. How well do we love ourselves? Can we love ourselves well if we don't do our work well? If we just do what it takes to get by? What happens to our own self esteem, what we think about ourselves, what we say to ourselves, if we aren't doing a good job?

Love. Love and work.

The two are connected, blended somehow. When we decide to do each task well, to the best our abilities, and to increase those abilities, a since of satisfaction occurs. When we treat each job as if called-to-it-by-Him-to-do-it-well something changes.

A hole begins filling.

God calls His people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ and equips His people to spread His word as we go about. Much of this going about is serving others through our work.

For most of us, this is the most we can do; serve others through doing work well. Then we start loving ourselves more, and loving others becomes part of what happens.

And it brings Him glory.

To that end........

The choice is not whether to choose a job or ministry

Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever
situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.
This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.
- 1 Corinthians 7:17 (NIV)

I get a little twisted when talking to someone and they seperate work from ministry as if they must make a choice between the two. The twist gets tighter if the discussion turns to one's "calling." The Bible tells us much less about being called specifically to positions in vocational ministry than it does "ordinary" work. What the Bible does tell us is -

• God calls people to Him to have a saving relationship through Jesus Christ
• God assigns believers spiritual gifts to build up the Christian community
• we are to remain where God has assigned and called us
• God not only equips believers to build up the Body of Christ but to build up the human community (the rest of the world around us)

My calling, until He calls me elsewhere, is to build up people through my mortgage and coaching/training business. God has given, or assigned, me certain gifts to facilitate that calling. These aren't just spiritual gifts but the ability to learn what I need to learn to be a good loan officer, coach, trainer, and speaker. He's gifted me with the ability to learn and improve myself so I can build up others; raise my own "lids" so I can help others to new levels.

There's sometimes conflicts with money and desires though. We want to earn money from the same place we're energized. In my case, I love leadership training and coaching and speaking. Yet, God hasn't shown me that I'm to earn a living from that profession. He has shown my I can use the mortgage loan officer income to reach more people with the training, coaching and speeking.

Along the path, I can use God's assignment to be a loan officer to serve those within my spheres of influene. To builid up, towards, the community of Christ. This is the same as someone called and assigned to a pastoral staff at church or other "mission." I don't have to leave my mortgage income to pursue my passion to make a difference in people's lives. Those are people include everyone I come in contact with; phone, face-to-face, email and otherwise; via the mortgage transactions and otherwise. I'm called to build up the Body of Christ and the community around me.

Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf, in their great read "Every Good Endeavor" say it this way -

We are not to choose jobs and conduct our work to fulfill ourselves and accrue power, for being called by God to do something is empowering enough. The question must now be "How, with my existing abilities and opportunities, can I be of greatest service to other people, knowing what I do of God's will and of human need?'

Thus, the choice is not whether I choose to work an ordinary job or go into ministry, the choice is whether or not I choose to work any job as a ministry. The choice isn't to be called to ministry or not, the choice is whether or not to accept the calling to minister where I am.

What if work was more about making you holy, than happy

There is no better starting point for a meaningful work life

than a firm grasp of this balanced work and rest theology.

- Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf

in "Every Good Endeavor"

My work life began changing 3 to 4 years ago due to a few things. Including, a lingering ponder that began when I heard Tim Keller say "if you don't have a good balance between your work and rest you don't have good understanding of the doctrine of work." The part of the brain that stores knowledge is said to be a different part than the part that controls behavior. Maybe I already knew this thing about work and rest, but the behavior wasn't always there. At least not as it pertained to the doctrine of work. When there was rest, there seemed to be guilt.

Tim Hawks said recently, tongue-in-cheek, "we're a nation of healthy individuals because we have all the facts. We know what we should eat, or not. We know the optimal time to exercise, the correct heart rate for our age, etc etc etc." (my paraphrase)

Maxwell refers to the "knowledge gap between knowing and growing." Blanchard the "know-can-do." It takes practice.......practicing the knowledge.

Prayerfully this workaholic/knowledgaholic, is changing by learning to practice the behaviors of work and rest, the behaviors of what I know, and maybe then learn some more (?).

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

What if work was more about making you holy, than happy

What if work was more about making you holy, than happy

There is no better starting point for a meaningful work life

than a firm grasp of this balanced work and rest theology.

- Tim Keller and Katherine Leary Alsdorf

in "Every Good Endeavor"

Have someone said something that caused a serious pause in your step? That happened to me 3 years ago when I heard Tim Keller say.......... "if you don't have a good balance between your work and rest you don't have good understanding of the doctrine of work." The part of the brain that stores knowledge is said to be a different part than the part that controls behavior. Maybe I already knew this thing about work and rest, but the behavior wasn't always there. At least not as it pertained to the doctrine of work. When there was rest, there seemed to be guilt.

Tim Hawks said recently, tongue-in-cheek, "we're a nation of healthy individuals because we have all the facts. We know what we should eat, or not. We know the optimal time to exercise, the correct heart rate for our age, etc etc etc." (my paraphrase)

Maxwell refers to the "knowledge gap between knowing and growing." Blanchard the "know-can-do." It takes practice.......practicing the knowledge.

Prayerfully this workaholic/knowledgaholic, is changing by learning to practice the behaviors of work and rest, the behaviors of what I know, and maybe then learn some more (?).

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

So what if I'm a Christian and show up at work grumpy?

In short, work - and lots of it - is an indispensable component in a

meaningful human life. It is a  supreme gift from God and one

of the main things that gives our lives purpose. But it must 
play its proper role, subservient to God. 
- Tim Keller in "Every Good Endeavor"

In an interview with Tim Keller, Tony Reinke asks

"if a Christian shows up at work on Monday morning

grumpy and irritable towards others, what's wrong?"

Keller answered, "the Gospel is brought to bear our work in a couple of ways. One is the heart. Anger, grumpiness, only doing what you have to do to get by - that means the lack of a Gospel character. The Gospel is supposed to make you graceful, make you humble. It is supposed to give you inner peace, generous in your spirit and if you are showing all these things in your work you aren't allowing the Gospel to change your heart the way in ought to."

"The Gospel usually makes you a good worker, makes people want to work with you...in the long run having a Gospel changed heart is pretty practical in the field of work."

Let me know your thoughts (and for the record, though hard to practice, I agree with Dr. Keller).

To that end....

Made to work, and recreate: made for stewardship

Nobody comes to NY to get a life, they come to work.

 If you want more you need to leave. - as told to Tim Keller.

Notes from the sermon (see previous post)

Keller lays the argument that -
- if one doesn't rest, one doesn't have the have the right Biblical view of work.
- all work is good
- no matter how high and lofty your work is today, your ancestor was a grounds keeper or a maid

He reminds us, from Genesis -
- that God got his hands dirty (He made us from the dirt)
- that God planted the garden
- and He put us in the garden to tend it
- that the author is going out of his way to tell us 
     - how good work is
     - that work is PUT in the paradise

Keller says "The only person, deep thinker, I (Keller speaking) know to have this high a view of work is Karl Marx. Marx held up the common worker. But Marxism is deeply discredited today because Marx didn't ground his view of work in a God who loves to get his hands dirty. He didn't ground his high view of work in the love of God whose Son came, not as the Greek expected him to come as a philosopher, or as the Romans expected as a noble statesman, or as the Jews wanted him to come as a great general.....but He came as a carpenter.

Marx grounded his high view of work in atheism and therefore if there is no God everything is permitted. If everything is just evolution, what's wrong with depression? There's nothing wrong with depressing the workers.

So, where is the source of social healing in the world?"

Good ponderings.

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

Looking in, out and up: made for stewardship

Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear

fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can

you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

- John 15:4

I'm attending a mastermind group focused on John Maxwell's new book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth. John Griffin, a Maxwell certified coach and trainer, is leading the study and gave us an assignment to bring 2 questions about the Law of Curiosity to the next meeting. While these 7 weeks together doesn't give us time to do more than hit the top-of-the-waves, the book and Griffin's poking has caused me to dig, as I was hoping. Yet, I wasn't necessarily expecting the digging to be in regards to work.

So far, the two biggest "hmmmmm's" have come from the laws of reflection and couriosity. This is from a guy (me) that understands God's design for us to work, was already heavy into evaluation & correction, and doesn't like to ask "why?" (it's a QBQ thing).

As I was preparing to take Bubba for a walk this morning I had a strong desire (from Holy Spirit?) to listen to a Keller message. Made for Stewardship jumped out from the podcast list. This was at least the 5th time I've listened to the messge but today it collided with the study about growth.

Thus, I think it's a great time to dig and ponder a bit of Dr. Keller's teachings on work again and in particular, camp out on how it pertains to my growth. This is the first a series of posts on Dr. Tim Keller's message on Made for Stewardship.

We are called to work because God also worked - He created the world! We can work for God by using out gifts for others. We also need rest from our work, which comes from our security in God through Christ. - Dr. Tim Keller

Dr. Keller continues to intrigue me with his delivery style. It's a mix of intellict, humor and a soft stab to the gut. Dave Moore mentioned once that he's so glad that Keller doesn't yell! Amen to that.

Keller hits the top of a number of important points in this short message without going too deep into any and leaves the listener with much to ponder. At around 14 minutes lays out the three guidelines to work:

- looking In at what you're gifted to do,
- look Out at what people need and
- look Up to the One who's called you.
 
- look In to work because of who you are,
- look Out at the world around you and give the world what it needs to have and
- look Up to realize what you're destined to be


Dr. Keller's message can be found by clicking here.


To that end..........I pray I'm looking in, out and up, paying attention and growing purposefully.


ps....I believe Griffin's purpose was successful.


Link's mentioned in this post -

John Maxwell
15 Invaluable Law's of Growth
John Griffin
Dr. Tim Keller
Made for Stewardship

Pondersings on "Why Work? Number 12

Christians especially have a role to play in using their

enterprises as vehicles for stewarding their communities

- Joy at Work Bible Study Companion

I have to remind myself of the time and culture in which Sayers wrote this writing....1947, and in England. These were tough times in so many ways. Yet, she ends her writing with a passionate statement

To work to serve the community we must

forget the community and serve the work.

 

 

Her reasons? She gives three:

 

One - you cannot do good work if you take your mind off the work to see how the community is taking it....If your heart is not wholly in the work, the work will not be good - and work that is not good serves neither God nor the community; it only serves Mammon.

 

Two - the moment you think of serving other people, you begin to have a notion that other people owe you something for your pains; you begin to think that you have a claim on the community. But if your mind is set upon serving the work, then you know you have nothing to look for; the only reward the work can give you is the satisfaction of beholding its perfection..........The work takes all and gives nothing but itself; and to serve the work is a labor of pure love.

 

Third - if you set out to serve the community, you will probably end by merely fulfilling a public demand - and you may not even do that......The danger of "serving the community" is that one is part of the communtiy, and that in serving it one may only be serving a kind of communal egotism.

 

Ms. Sayers goes on to say....The only true way of serving the community is to be truly in sympathy with the community - to be one's self part of the communtiy - and then serve the work, without giving the community another thought. Then the work will endure, because it will be true to itself. It is the work that serves the community; the business of the worker is to serve the work.

 

Pondering this small writing has taken longer than I thought and while my journal includes many notes, I haven't written the comments here that I had expected. As I reflect over the past 9 months and the journey I've been on with my work, and community, I know I need to continue to reflect on my view of scripture and how my work serves God and let me (the worker) serve the work.

 

I'll remind again that you can find a link to a free copy of this writing in the above right column. There's also a link to David Miller's republished edition that includes his excellently written forward.

 

 

To that end..........worship well



Ponderings on "Why Work?" Number 11

One of the great puzzles to solve in life is to find a
job you can love and that someone will pay you to do.

- Doug Shermand / William Hendricks
in Your Work Matters to God

Sayers' 3rd Propostition is this: "The Worker's first duty is to serve the work."

She follows this startling statement with a discussion on Christ's 1st and 2nd commandment to love with an emphasis...

to remember if we put our neighbor first, we are putting man above

God, and that is what we have been doing ever since we began

to worship humanity and make man the measure of all things.

Some reading this little book might be struck how common her examples are to today's culture. This proves once again Ecclesiates' (1:9) "there's nothing new under the sun." Sayers (page 25) gives the following quote to drive home the negative impact of focusing on community...

"I expect the judicature to understand that the nation does not exist

for their convenience, but that justice exists to serve the nation." - Hitler

(Remember that "Why Work?" was written by Sayers in 1947)

The last 3 pages of this book are probably the most revolutionary of the 27 and I remind the readers of this blog that the book is available free online. In the next post I'll begin wrapping-up this pondering with Sayers' 3 reasons why "serving the community is to falsify the work and the only way to serve the community is to forget the community and serve the work."

To that end....

Ponderings on "Why Work?" Number 10

Stewardship means continuously asking, "How would God want me to

treat this thing that He has placed within my control?"

- fm Joy at Work Bible Study Companion

Continuing with Sayer's 2nd Proposition "the only Christian work is good work well done" the author offers the following...

• God is not served by technical incompetence
• Incompetence and untruth always result when the secular vocation is treated as a thing alien to religion
• when you find a man who is a Christian praising God by the excellence of his work - do not distract him and take him away from his proper vocation to address religious meetings and open church bazaars.
• Serve God in the way to which God has called him. If you take him away from that, he will exhaust himself in an alien technique and lose his capacity to do his dedicated work.
• This worker is not there to serve the church; he is there to serve God by serving his work

As a reminder, Sayer's offers her doctrinal position....

"work is the natural exercise and function of man - the

creature is made in the image of his Creator"....

 

and then she offers Propositions and Consequences of the Propositions.

 

This "the only Christian work is good work well done" really sums it all up, doesn't it? The Bible is specific that we're made in his image. Right? So, even though we're sinners, shouldn't we strive to do work well?

 

Where does the pay check become a real factor? Is it ok to do a job poorly while we strive to get better?

 

Forgiveness...where does it play to incompetence? Where's the division, if there is, between a poor job intended to do well, and pure incompetence?

 

Sayers ends here 2nd Proposition with...

 

He, God, is not there to serve me; I am

there to serve God by serving his work.

 

To that end....