Establish the work of our hands

The following is an excerpt from Wendell Berry's book Bringing it to the Table - On Farming and Food.
It got my wheels turning about the value of work / the transience of life / Psalm 90
Enjoy...


With industrialization has come a general depreciation of work. As the price of work has gone up, the value of it has gone down, until it is now so depressed that people simply do not want to do it anymore. We can say without exaggeration that the present national ambition of the United States is unemployment. People live for quitting time, for weekends, for vacations, and for retirement; moreover, this ambition seems to be classless, as true in the executive suites as on the assembly lines. One works not because one loves to do it, but only to be able to quit - a condition that a saner time would regard as infernal, a condemnation. This is explained, of course, by the dullness of the work, by the loss of responsibility for, or credit for, or knowledge of the thing made. What can be the status of the working small farmer in a nation whose motto is a sigh of relief: "Thank God it's Friday"?

But there is an even more important consequence: By the dismemberment of work, by the degradation of our minds as worker, we are denied our highest calling, for, as Gill says, "every man is called to give love to the work of his hands. Every man is called to be an artist." The small family farm is one of the last places - they are getting rarer every day - where men and women (and girls and boys, too) can answer that call to be an artist, to learn to give love to the work of their hands. It is one of the last places where the maker - and some farmers still do talk about "making the crops" - is responsible, from start to finish, for the thing made. This certainly is a spiritual value, but it is not for that reason an impractical or uneconomic one. In fact, from the exercise of this responsibility, this giving of love to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer, and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They gain the means of life, the goodness of food, and the longevity and dependability of the sources of food, both natural and cultural. The proper answer to the spiritual calling becomes, in turn, the proper fulfillment of physical need.

A Steady Pace

I've been thinking a lot lately about the pace of my life and the lives of those around me - asking the question, "What is God-honoring and healthy? I imagine that there is no blanket response to that question - we have all been blessed with different energy levels and capabilities. Yet within Christian circles (at least the ones I have passed through) we seem to honor those who "do, do, do." I read a few biographies of the men and women who led the turn of the century revival movements - night and day they served, traveled, spoke - we read about them waking up before the sun in order to pray and study God's Word. They are framed as heros of the faith, and the Holy Spirit certainly empowered the work of their hands. Yet many sacrificed their health as well as their family life for the sake of living and serving at such an incredible pace.

I often feel the pressure of this lifestyle. I wholeheartedly don't desire it. I don't think that God calls us to a life of 'panting feverishness.' I trust that He can sustain some to live at a quick pace with complete peace, and even that He could do this for me. Nonetheless, scripture continually reminds us that we are limited, transient beings - like the flower of the field we are here one day and gone the next, the morning dew that is quickly dried up, a vapor in the wind. The success of God's work in establishing his kingdom does not hinge on my struggling and striving - yet He invites me in to labor; to labor in the strength He supplies.

I feel the weight of this in the ministry I'm currently serving with - I could literally work 24/7 and still have things to do. It requires a conscious choice to stop, and in faith to entrust what is left undone to the Father. As a single person, I sometimes believe the lie that I can or should "go, go, go." I secretly envy those who are married and/or have children and have a 'legitimate' reason for setting boundaries. Even as the thought comes to mind, I know its false. I have some friends who have made intentional choices to limit their commitments in order to love God and love people well. I'm encouraged by them; reminded that it is possible; and challenged to affirm that a well-invested day does not necessarily involve rushing from one thing to the next.

The Lord knows our frame; He knows that we are dust; He created us as a limited beings and called it good. May we live in line with his good intentions.

This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength." Isaiah 30:15

Discernment

In the midst of sensing that I'll be making some big decisions in the near future, I was encouraged to read through George Mueller's description of how he sought God's will when making decisions about the orphan houses God used him to establish. I hope this is as helpful to y'all as it has been to me.

"I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter...Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God...If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's Will in connection with His Word and Spirit. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgement according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly."

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Isaiah 30:21

Mixed Emotions

The drive from northern Indiana down I-65S is familiar territory for me - I made the trip many times during my college years to get from home to Franklin. To be honest, the trip is pretty uneventful...cornfields pretty much the whole way. Within the past year there has been a new addition to the scenery that I just can't make my mind up about - the windmill farms.

Apparently farmers have sold pieces of their land to make room for these towering windmills, and our present/future move as a nation toward more renewable energy sources. Each time I've driven past them, I feel very torn. On the one hand, it is wonderful that we are moving away from the use of fossil fuels toward things like wind and solar energy. We need to do this. And as we do it, the windmills have to be somewhere.

Nonetheless, its painful to see how they interrupt what has been the same for generations. For so long we've looked out over the area and seen nothing but flat fields all the way to the horizon - now there are hundreds of towering specters as far as the eye can see. At night it was completely black except for the stars on a clear night - now there are hundreds of red blinking lights to keep any planes from hitting the windmills. Something about all this feels unnatural and icky, and yet utilizing wind energy is such a positive thing.

So, I find myself torn. I suppose it is yet another thing where we live to learn in the tension rather than assigning a clear black and white, good or bad category. I drove past them again this weekend for my 5-year college reunion (where has time gone?), and the tension was renewed for me.

If y'all have any thoughts please share.

Isaiah 56:3-8

Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the Lord say, "The Lord will surely exclude me from his people."
And let not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree."

For this is what the Lord says:

"To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant -
to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.

And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord to serve him, to love the name of the Lord, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant -
these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

The Sovereign Lord declares - he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
"I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered."

Life Together

I've been revisiting Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in preparation for a teaching I'll be leading on Christian community.
I was really encouraged to be reminded of Bonhoeffer's thoughts on community, particularly while navigating some issues with those I'm blessed to 'do life with.'

Here goes...

Because God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship, because God has bound us together in one body with other Christians in Jesus Christ, long before we entered into common life with them, we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.

We thank God for what He has done for us. We thank God for giving us brethren who live by His call, by His forgiveness, and His promise. We do not complain of what God does not give us; we rather thank God for what He does give us daily. And is not what has been given us enough: brothers, who will go on living with us through sin and need under the blessing of His grace?

Is the divine gift of Christian fellowship anything less than this, any day, even the most difficult and distressing day? Even when sin and misunderstanding burden the communal life, is not the sinning brother still a brother, with whom I, too, stand under the Word of Christ? Will not his sin be a constant occasion for me to give thanks that both of us may live in the forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ?

Thus the very hour of disillusionment with my brother becomes incomparably salutary, because it so thoroughly teaches me that neither of us can ever live by our own words and deeds, but only by that one Word and Deed which really binds us together - the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. When the morning mists of dreams vanish, then dawns the bright day of Christian fellowship.

Our Invitation

But who am I, Lord, that I should presume to approach unto Thee?

Behold, the "heaven of heavens cannot contain thee" and Thou sayest, "Come unto me."

What does this most tender condescension and so loving and invitation mean? How shall I dare to come, who know not any good in myself, whereupon I may presume? How shall I bring Thee into my house, I who have so often offended Thy most gracious countenance?

Angels and archangels stand in awe of Thee, holy and righteous men fear Thee, and sayest Thou, "Come unto me"?

Unless Thou, O Lord, didst say this, who would believe it to be true?
And unless Thou didst command it, who could attempt to draw near?


Thomas aKempis