On Work

I’ve recently hit my six-month mark at Southwest, and I know I’m only beginning my journey - standing right at the base of a glacier, tightening my shoes and testing the ropes. I’m so glad to be right where I am: the word “grateful” keeps pulsing through my veins.

With a full six months of experience under my belt, some could say I’m an expert on work (kidding). Nevertheless, with a full realization that I have only begun, but with an excitement about what lies ahead, below are two resources that have been on my mind since beginning this adventure - maybe valuable to you as well?

A book: Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller

Many cite this as a classic on work, for good reason. I read its pages last summer, underlying and starring and re-reading all through. A few teasers of my favorite quotes:

• "Whether it’s a symphony or a coal mine, all work is an act of creating and comes from the same source: …the capacity to see, to connect, and to make what had not been seen, connected, and made before."

• "Western societies are increase divided between the highly remunerated 'knowledge classes' and the more poorly remunerated 'service sector,' and most of us accept and perpetuate the value judgments that attach to these categories...But how does the God of the Hebrews come into the world? As a carpenter.…in Genesis we see God as a gardener, and in the New Testament we see him as a carpenter. No task is too small a vessel to hold the immense dignity of work given by God. Simple physical labor is God’s work no less than the formulation of theological truth."

• "Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and ‘unfold' creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development."

• “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?”

• "But the gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves and secure our identity through work, for we are already proven and secure. It also frees us from a condescending attitude toward less sophisticated labor and from envy over more exalted work. All work now becomes a way to love the God who saved us freely; and by extension, a way to love our neighbor."

• “The difference between [a wilderness] and culture is simply, work.”

An album: "Work Songs: The Porter’s Gate"

https://open.spotify.com/album/0fGjqZbsoSCGJEfjdaCyCI

Some of my most favorite artists have collaborated to create this album, and it has been re-centering to my mind and heart on countless days.

One of my favorites, "Wood and Nails,” voices the following:

"The work was done with nothing but

Wood and nails in Your scar-borne hands

O show me how to work and praise

Trusting that I am Your instrument"

Praise God - the greatest redemptive work in all of history was done with the small tools of wood and nails. It is God who breathes life from death, glory from decay, hope from ruin. We are small instruments in His hand - the clay and not the sculptor, the pen and not the artist.

Other songs: Small Things with Great Love, Establish the Work of Our Hands, and more.

My favorite thoughts from all the above? That our work - the simple, everyday routines that compose our days - sparkle and dance with imprints of the Divine. Nothing is small. We were made to work. We were made to rest. We were made to delight in our Creator, and He delights in us. Hallelujah - Abba, may we look at your Creation and see the good. May we look at You, our Creator, and see you at the Ultimate good. We love you!