01 mayo 2011

Busy humans

thought one: humans as apprentices
Humans, at our best, are like children. We imitate the Father. He planted and cares for His creation. Humans become farmers (or gardners, if otherwise occupied.) He paints the sky each day; the desert and mountains He sculpted. Michelangelo and hobbyists do their best. He gave minds, lends thoughts, sparks ideas, and fills them with facts; we gather small people around and tell how pinapples, the English language, and Texas came into being. God fixes, cleans up, constructs, and puts in order. Likewise, we reject chaos and messes in favor of making something worth existing. All work worth working has been done before, in some shape, by our God.

thought two: what is vocation?

The Lord is... kind in all His works.

So, i'd formulate...

God's work = creativity + love

When we can joyfully imitate God's work, God's business, for the service of others, we have found our vocation. What can we do- cheerfully, beautifully, well- for others?

Sometimes we get paid for it, which i really think is a nice bonus, but not totally relevent to the discussion. True vocation is about giving, not making a living. But it is a giving where we receive satisfaction from the very act of it.

It is probably not something done through gritted teeth, although living in a fallen world means our service might not always be pain-free. We have fleshes to reckon with- ours and others'- along with the world's black hole of lies and the devil's anti-joy, anti-beauty, anti-constructive schemes. Joy is inherent to it, but joy of a strong, resilient, fighting kind.

thought three: My vocation is ___________.

The question to ask is:

Doing what can i practically live Psalm 145?

Nature does it. The sky is the sky, the ocean does its thing, cats are cats, birds sing and fly like God really does exist, and it's the very best thing they could possibly do. If it weren't for sin, we could all be as happily human as a cat is happily feline. It's because of sin that we wish for (or end up being) less than we are to be. What cat wants to be less than a cat, say, to be a dog? None. They are not moral; they cannot choose to be less than what they were made to be. Only humans have the freedom to choose their shame.

Last thought...
God as Father is both title and work... and maybe the highest, best, most time-consuming work we can imitate...