Snowboarding at Winter Park Today

Fun with Col!

 

Ben Witherington on Angry Atheism

Ben Witherington is one of my favorite evangelical authors. He is prolific, gracious, erudite, and well respected as an author. All qualities that I admire greatly. Here are some excellent excerpts from his recent blog post: Angry Apostles of Atheism Attack

...
Sometimes what worries me the most about such atheists who think they stand on the intellectual high ground is the fact that they do not realize that their unquestioned faith in their own conclusions is just that--- 'unquestioned faith', in this case in some sort of rationalism, or materialism coupled with a certain view of science which sees it as the key which unlocks the doors to all that is 'really' real. But as A.J. Ayer said a long time ago, imperial empiricism starts from a faith postulate-- namely that the human senses are generally reliable conveyers of data to the human brain. This in itself is an unproved faith hypothesis, unproved because of course, as C.S. Lewis once said "we cannot crawl one inch outside our mortal skin". We cannot escape our own interiority and subjectivity in any complete sense. We can be reached from outside of ourselves, but we cannot step outside of ourselves and our reliance on our senses.

...Yes, friends you see, fundamentalism is not in the end a position on the arc of the religious or theological spectrum. It is a mindset that can be embraced by conservatives or liberals, true believers or atheists. It is what Bloom complained about when he bemoaned 'the closing of the American mind'. It has to do not merely with the lust for certainty, though that is a crucial component, but also the actual belief that you have found that absolute certainty such that faith is no longer required, it has become unassailable knowledge.

...How foolish indeed to confidently deny the existence of a Being simply because one has not yet personally found Him or been found by Him. This is the very definition of a lost, and in the end, unintelligent and unwise creature, standing as he does against the backdraft of the posture and position of most of the most brilliant minds in all ages of history, and spitting into the prevailing wind.

Good Thoughts on Work from David Miller

From The Last Taboo: An Interview with David Miller

Emphasis mine in the quotes below. Note especially Miller's comments on why there is this movement and also how the Church approaches the subject of work and vocation. I didn't realize I was part of a movement, but hey, I'm in!

...
Under a God and Business cover story headline, Fortune magazine reported in 2001 that a “groundswell of believers” is breaching “the last taboo in corporate America.”

If it’s true, if faith is the final unmentionable, then David Miller, executive director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture, is smack in the breach. From his spot in the overlap of academia, business, and the church, he is turning up the talk in all three circles . . . urging leaders to begin to integrate the claims of faith with the demands of the marketplace—at bare minimum to start to think about it.
...

What is behind the movement?

A deep desire by men and women no longer to compartmentalize their lives and parts of their days as did our generation and older. For us, work and play were two different worlds: “Work hard, play hard.” Baby Boomers have come to see that as an unhealthy way to live. Not only that, but it robs our careers of powerful resources. Generations coming along after us—GenX and the Millennials—won’t have it. A guy who wears an earring on the weekend wants to wear it at work too. “Why should I take it off? That’s who I am.” People are saying,“my faith is part of who I am. Why should I leave it in the parking lot when I go to work? My faith helps me shape, filter, and interpret my world.”

Where is the Church in the faith-at-work movement?

The Church generally shies from the topic, and our divinity schools and seminaries are no better. Fewer than 10 percent of regular churchgoers, surveys say, can remember the last time their pastor preached on the topic of work. When he or she did preach on work, inevitably the tone was critical—if not hostile—and painted all business people as greedy and uncaring. Seldom do pastors honor the work world as a place for parishioners to live out their high calling. Whether you’re a secretary or a CEO, people in the pews seldom hear from the pulpit that God has a plan that includes your work, and that your faith can help inform how you approach your work.
...

According to the article, David’s forthcoming book, God at Work (Oxford University Press, 2006), studies the growth, dynamics, and future of the faith-at-work movement.  Hmm...same main title as Veith's book. Added to my Amazon wishlist...

Concluding Prayer of the Church: Midday Office - Jan 3rd '07

I intended to post this last week, but time got away from me. In fact, I just noticed that this prayer was the first thing I posted to this blog back in May 2nd, 2006. 

Well, I'm going to post it again anyway since this is such a beautiful prayer that covers so much of what I have been thinking about in terms of God's callings on our lives. But more than that, it expresses so eloquently how we are to relate to God in all the various aspects of our daily experience. Lord, hear our prayer.

O Lord my God, to you and to your service I devote myself,  body, soul, and spirit.

Fill my memory with the record of your mighty works; enlighten my understanding with the light of your Holy Spirit; and may all the desires of my heart and will center in what you would have me do.

Make me an instrument of your salvation for the people entrusted to my care, and grant that by my life and teaching I may set forth your true and living Word.

Be always with me in carrying out the duties of my faith. In prayer, quicken my devotion; in praises, heighten my love and gratitude; in conversation five me readiness of thought and expression; and grant that, by the clearness and brightness of your holy Word, all the world may be drawn into your blessed kingdom. All this I ask for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

 From The Divine Hours:Prayers for Autumn and Wintertime, by Phyllis Tickle (see also ExploreFaith)

Daddy's Little Girl

New outfit.

Taking baby shopping. She's walking!
 

God at Work - Chapter 1: Part IV

Continuing the discussion on vocation, I think that once we acknowledge that our work is a sacred calling, there is a profound danger of saying that our vocation is our profession. This is just as much a pitfall as the more common tendency to ignore vocation altogether or confine it to church ministry alone.

Veith points out that, "According to the Reformers, each Christian has multiple vocations. We have callings in our work. We have callings in our families. We have callings as citizens in the larger society. And we have callings in the Church." (p. 22).

So we are pulled in many directions, and face many difficult choices as we think through questions like:

• What does it mean to be a Christian parent? Christian artist? Christian software developer? Christian construction worker?
• How can I serve God in my work? What if I have a dead-end job?
• How do I know what God is calling me to, what my vocation is supposed to be?
• What if I want to be married but can't find the right person? And as a friend reminded me last week, what if I am a Christian and have found a wonderful person but they are not a Christian?
• What about our involvement in politics? in the Church?

In this book Veith wisely avoids giving pat answers to these trying questions, but rather is attempting to "provide a spiritual framework for thinking about such issues, and for acting upon them, perhaps, in a different way" (p. 23). Having read the book several times now, I think he largely succeeds in his goal.

Vocation is not a matter of what we should do, but rather what God does in and through our vocations.

A key distinctive point that Veith draws out from Luther's approach "is that instead of seeing vocation as a matter of what we should do - what we must do as a Christian worker or a Christian citizen or a Christian parent - Luther emphasizes what God does in and through our vocations...[thus] vocation is a matter of Gospel, a manifestation of God's action, not our own." (Ibid.)

Libera me, Domine! Free me, Lord, from treating the callings on my life as burdens to bear instead of loving gifts from you. These callings become, as Veith puts it, realms of grace in which we can experience love and grace, "both in the blessings we receive from others and in the way God is working through us despite our failures" (p. 24). 

To find Him in vocation brings Him, literally, down to earth, makes us see how close he really is to us, and transfigures everyday life.

Vocation is not another duty to perform, not another checkmark against my name and not another task on my to-do list. And it is especially not just another thing for me to fail at.

More than this, the mundane activities that make up most of our lives. The routines of dishes, going to work, cleaning the house, shoveling the driveway, paying the bills - these are all hiding places for God.

Ok, that's it for chapter one. Next time, we look at Veith's thoughts in chapter two on God's providence, human instrumentality and common grace. Or, in basic terms, how God works through people.

Technorati tags: Vocation, Christian, Calling

The Second Denver Blizzard of '06: Dec 28-29

That snow-laden car is actually driving past our house....

The neighbors pitch in.

A squirrelly friend (I include this one because I took the shot with our Canon digital camera through our binoculars.  A little blurry, but not bad considering)

Sledding in the backyard (~5pm!).

Backyard snow in the morning.

The Moon from the backyard.

Discussion over who gets to play with the shopping trolley. (Nothing to do with the blizzard, but I couldn't help include it. I keep trying to think up captions for what our cute PJ-clad kids are saying...)