From Freedom of Simplicity (Richard Foster)
"It is one thing for God to come into us (and a very necessary thing), but it is quite another for us to come into God. In the first instance we are still the center of attention, in the second God is the focal point. When God comes into us we still have a cerain autonomy; when we come into God we have come IN. He is in all and through all and above all. This is no infantile pantheism, as if God could be captured in his creation; it is a marvelous majestic monotheism - one God from who all life is sustained. It is life out of the divine Center." (pg. 103)
What a shake up statement to the American evangelist! Our self-centered and individualistic western sentiment punches us in the gut when we recognize that it is not the individual inviting Jesus to come live in him as much as it is the individual absolving self into the Divine Center, God of all the universe. God help me to not place you in the center of my life, but to rather place myself into the center of your Life!
15 July 2009
30 January 2009
Is Unemployment Really That Bad?
I was recently reading C.S. Lewis (again!) and his foresight for the end of the 20th Century and now beginning of the 21st is astounding. Allow me to quote a brief passage from Good Work and Good Works, an essay from "The World's Last Night, And Other Essays."
A real advance in charity stopped us talking about "surplus population" and started us talking instead about "unemployment." The danger is that this should lead us to forget that employment is not an end in itself. We want people to be employed only as a means to their being fed - believing (whether rightly, who knows?) that it is better to feed them even for making bad things badly than for doing nothing.
Economy, economy, economy! That's all we're hearing about, all we're concerned about and all that matters anymore. We must have jobs. We must employ everyone. We must continue growing the immense wealth of the United States or the world is going to collapse and all will be lost. NEWS FLASH! The world, as we know it, is going to collapse no matter what we do. It has been written and it will be accomplished by the One who established this world and us in it. And contrary to what most may think or feel about the end of the world being such or horrible and dreadful thing, we who are being changed into the likeness of the One who created it all welcome the end of this life with open arms. Who in their right mind wants the world, as it is, to continue anyway?
So how must we live? Let us be about the work that will matter and will last far beyond the collapse of our present world. Let us be concerned more about the unregenerate, not so much the unemployed.
Must we eat? Yes!
Therefore, we must find something to do which earns us a living.
But is that our hope? No!
Our hope is in the One, Jesus, who died and gave Himself up for us, so that, we live beyond the sinful existence we now begrudgingly wade through.
So don't just make a living. Don't go to work today, job or no job, and give a half-ass effort just so you get to the paycheck. Whatever it is you find your hands doing, do it well. Do good work, not just a good work. Be not impressed with your employment. Stand in awe of the God who has rescued you and has sent you on mission to rescue others. Every one of God's children has a job whether they are getting paid for it or not. Find a way to make a living, but more importantly, live!
A real advance in charity stopped us talking about "surplus population" and started us talking instead about "unemployment." The danger is that this should lead us to forget that employment is not an end in itself. We want people to be employed only as a means to their being fed - believing (whether rightly, who knows?) that it is better to feed them even for making bad things badly than for doing nothing.
Economy, economy, economy! That's all we're hearing about, all we're concerned about and all that matters anymore. We must have jobs. We must employ everyone. We must continue growing the immense wealth of the United States or the world is going to collapse and all will be lost. NEWS FLASH! The world, as we know it, is going to collapse no matter what we do. It has been written and it will be accomplished by the One who established this world and us in it. And contrary to what most may think or feel about the end of the world being such or horrible and dreadful thing, we who are being changed into the likeness of the One who created it all welcome the end of this life with open arms. Who in their right mind wants the world, as it is, to continue anyway?
So how must we live? Let us be about the work that will matter and will last far beyond the collapse of our present world. Let us be concerned more about the unregenerate, not so much the unemployed.
Must we eat? Yes!
Therefore, we must find something to do which earns us a living.
But is that our hope? No!
Our hope is in the One, Jesus, who died and gave Himself up for us, so that, we live beyond the sinful existence we now begrudgingly wade through.
So don't just make a living. Don't go to work today, job or no job, and give a half-ass effort just so you get to the paycheck. Whatever it is you find your hands doing, do it well. Do good work, not just a good work. Be not impressed with your employment. Stand in awe of the God who has rescued you and has sent you on mission to rescue others. Every one of God's children has a job whether they are getting paid for it or not. Find a way to make a living, but more importantly, live!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
