Work Stories 2019 Wrap-Up!
In the words of theology professor Wendy Wright, Ordinary Time is a season:
“…to become attentive to the call of discipleship both outer and inner. What are we called to do? … What are we called to be?”
There may not be another area of our lives that we hold most in common without realizing it than the time and energy we give to our jobs. Most of us spend a significant portion of our lives trying to fill the gap between what we were made to do and what we actually do with our days. This gap is no small thing; it often feels like an ache we can’t name and leaks out in the midst of our day jobs and our too-short weekends. We carry this sense of wanting something more with us into every relationship and every job interview. We know, in our innermost being, we were made for something good and most of us are not sure how much attention to pay to that feeling.
In the meantime, we have to pay the bills, care for our families, mow the lawn, and figure out what to eat for lunch.
Who am I? Why am I here? Where do I belong?
For the second year this fall, I was delighted to share work stories from a few friends who are living out their callings one day at a time. They each gave us a one-day snapshot into their work-life to help us see what they know to be true right now about who they are made to be. Some live out their callings in a way that they get paid to do the thing they’re most uniquely suited to be in this world, others work jobs that pay the bills so they are able to pursue those callings. Most are a combination of the two.
Thank you for engaging with this series so warmly. Each time you shared or commented on a post, you added to the conversation in a meaningful way. I’d love to hear your stories, too. I hope you were encouraged by the stories and by the prayer of blessing at the conclusion of each post. All of it adds up together as we help each other recognize that sometimes our most extraordinary qualities are demonstrated during our ordinary work lives.
Matt Evans' Work Stories: One Job, Many Titles (including "the worst")
Thank you, Matt Evans, for kicking off the series this year with humor, candor, and meaningful insight into the life of an equine veterinarian / small business owner / artist. I’m happy to stand in line with you as another “worst sinner” embracing all the good gifts that have come down to us from the Father. Perhaps the most important reminder you gave us is found tucked into the bit about trying to get your coffee while your kids pack their school lunches: “But more frequently than I like, I am thinking about my day and selfish needs and literally miss the forest of this vocation for the kitchen full of noisy, messy short people.” Thank you for reminding us that what’s happening in our real lives is, in fact, the only life we have to offer Jesus and others.
Nancy Nordenson's Finding Livelihood In The Middle Of Work
Thank you, Nancy Nordenson, for encouraging us (again!) toward hope no matter where we find ourselves on the spectrum of doing the work we’ve always wanted to do and just doing the work we’ve found. Thank you for your book Finding Livelihood: A Progress of Work and Leisure as a good and true reflection on the tension between light and shadow that most of us hold every single workday.
Brian Murphy's Don't Quit Your Day Job
Thank you, Brian Murphy, for demonstrating the dignity of every kind of calling, not only the “religious” kind. Blue-collar, white-collar, and clergy collar - Brian's worn them all with tenacity, vigor, and a winsome sense of humor. Today he’s sharing his latest work adventure with us. I hope you’ll be encouraged wherever you find yourself working day or night.
Keri McDonald's Job History as a Pilgrimage
Thank you, Keri McDonald, for the wealth of insight she offers those of us hoping to discern where our own work and callings intersect. Thank you, also, for reminding us that our callings are always evolving and that our jobs are only one part of that equation. Put together, the decisions we make about how to earn a paycheck and the clarity we discover about our personal passions mark the way of a life-long pilgrimage.
Emily Borowski's All Creatures
Thank you, Emily Borowski, for showing us the beauty and strength in your everyday, walk-around, worshiping-God-life. Thank you, also, for taking the title of the most interesting job we’ll ever (perhaps) feature on the Work Stories series!
Alicia Nichols'Que la alegría sea nuestro motor
Thank you, Alicia Nichols, for pressing into the heart of God for his callings on your life. Thank you for helping expand our imagination on how to create space to know our neighbors at the level of the heart - their mother tongue and for encouraging us to love each person we encounter - no matter their language. (Thanks also for graciously laughing with me when I mistranslated the title for your guest post. May joy always be the engine that lets us be known by our love!)
Vernée Wilkinson's Making Space For God and Others
Thank you, Vernée Wilkinson, for giving us a peek into the way your heart longs for people who live in the darkness of unlove and uncertainty to meet the great Light of Christ. Thank you for inviting us to the unity of God’s Spirit through your life and work and for helping us imagine ways to provide refuge for others.
I’d love to hear your stories, too. How have you been able to recognize the truth that some of your most extraordinary qualities are demonstrated in your ordinary work?
I hope you’ve been able to hear the stories, prayers, and songs from each week as a blessing and affirmation that your work matters.
With that in mind, let me conclude the series with some of the words Nancy Nordenson concludes Finding Livelihood:
“Consider your own experiences of work, no matter whether your work falls short of or far exceeds what you thought you’d do in this life. You are at once worker, witness, and narrator, protagonist and minor character. Write your experiences ... Scribble in the margins your longings and disappointments, your passion and needs, your aspirations and limits, the tension of your planned life and your given life.
...
You’re aiming for glimpses of what’s really going on here: how work becomes more than what it is and how you become who you’re meant to be in the process; how you find livelihood even as you are making it.”
— Nancy Nordenson, Finding Livelihood: A Progess of Work and Leisure