Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: spirituality

  • Bill Heatley on Graduation and Finding Meaningful Work

    Bill Heatley never disappoints with his insightful reframing of work and success in terms of human spirituality and our relationships with God.

    Check out his recent interview with “tothesource”. (click here)

    In this interview Heatley discusses the transition from college life to work life and some of the misconceptions, myths, and empty promises that young people face. He offers the refreshing and challenging alternative that work might actually be a place to bless society and each other through meaningful participation.

    Two realms (work and religion) that most people keep compartmentalized, he comfortably integrates with language that is both accessible and helpful.

    Bill is a kindred spirit regarding the natural integration of work and faith. If you have not met Bill, you need to do so right away. 

    Bill Heatley is also the author of The Gift of Work, a helpful rethink of our workplace commitments in terms of God’s larger intentions for our well-being.

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked -> The Soul of a Leader #9: Finding Spiritual Guidance

    thought-leadersIt’s always difficult to conclude a series. Especially a series as rich as this one. Margaret Benefiel has given us a great gift with her book, The Soul of a Leader.

    She concludes by addressing one of the primary dysfunctions of leadership in America. I call it the myth of the strong, competent, and isolated leader.

    Unlike athletes, for example, leaders seem to believe that their work must be done alone in order to qualify as legitimate leadership. An athlete surrounds her or himself with coaches, doctors, advice, and support of all sorts. Athletes know they cannot learn, succeed or even survive on their own.

    Leaders, on the other hand, seem possessed by a demon that is ever threatening to expose them for the frauds they are afraid they might be. Consequently they direct all their energies to proving that they are completely competent, sufficiently strong and absolutely independent in their role.

    When Benefiel asserts that spiritual guidance is a crucial form of support for leaders in today’s business world I have to cheer.

    We need another set of eyes and ears in our life. We cannot remain focused, keep things in perspective, plan for the future, address emergencies, build enterprising teams, and sustain the energy, enthusiasm and spirit required to lead an business on an on-going basis. And that’s only a partial list of a leader’s role!

    The key in considering spiritual direction is believing that having someone else watching and listening with you will be of value. The spiritual dimension of life in (more…)

  • Angry Conversations with God by Susan Isaacs

    I don’t usually write posts on my personal reading, but I have to give a public nod to comedian Susan Isaacs.

    Anyone with a personal spirituality will love Angry Conversations with God.

    Anyone who’s sworn never to have a personal spirituality will love Angry Conversations with God.

    Creativity kudos for taking God to couples therapy! It’s about time too. (I wouldn’t be surprised if an entirely new genre of therapy emerges out of this.)

    I’m not usually attracted to memoirs (i.e. listening in on someone else’s story.) But Isaacs does such a great job telling her story that I was able to both “feel her pain,” so to speak, on the one hand, as well as connect deeply to my own relationship with God on the other.

    This book is both hilarious and touching. Authentic to her private experience as well as profoundly insightful about what we all experience.

    If you want a good laugh while brushing up against some of life’s most intimate, turbulent, and significant issues, then sit down with Susan Isaacs. You might end up taking God to couples therapy too!

  • The Gift of Work -> Chapter 4: You Are Here. God As Our Reference Point

    thought-leadersIntegration. A whole person whose whole life flows out of and reflects a common core. A complex and beautiful tapestry, whose many and seemingly unrelated threads combine in a single yet endlessly creative and generative work of art.

    gift-of-work1Many of us who share a Christian spirituality struggle to relate our faith and our work. They seem to function in separate categories, and that’s just fine with us thank you very much. The links our religious leaders suggest (be ethical, strive for excellence, convert co-workers, etc.) feel like a reach and we intuit the deep disconnect.

    Bill Heatley suggests an insightful and helpful alternative. Instead of two separate compartments that need to be connected, he offers God as the reference point out of which and from which all of life flows.

    To the extent that we are familiar with, deeply connected to, and highly interactive with this one (more…)

  • The Gift of Work -> Chapter 2: Kingdom Living

    thought-leadersTraining for kings.

    From the outside in… practicing habits of healthy living until proficient. From the inside out… becoming increasingly open to the involvement of God in the training process.

    Such are the spiritual disciplines: twin and simultaneous trajectories toward becoming the kind of person you were meant to be.

    gift-of-work1Reflecting on the workplace, it is my stewardship of the life God has given me that determines the character of my presence and contribution there. Hence the power of Heatley’s now obvious, but usually overlooked, linkage between our stewardship within God’s kingdom with the role of kings.

    How I show up matters.

    Whether or not I choose to engage fully—authentically, energetically and creatively—matters.

    The choices I make at work improve, restore, and (more…)

  • Non-Denominational Nonsense

    The awkward irony of a non-denominational church is the assumption that we can be more affiliated with all other Christians by affiliating ourselves with no other Christians.

    – Karl Edwards

  • Thought Leaders Unpacked: The Gift of Work by Bill Heatley

    thought-leadersWe launch our first “Thought Leaders Unpacked” discussion series today with a look at The Gift of Work by Bill Heatley.

    For many of us spirituality and work operate in separate, unrelated compartments. But what if your work were an integral expression of your faith?

    gift-of-work1What if you weren’t asked to change the subject to evangelism or early morning prayer groups or promises not to take office supplies home in order to think about what it means to be both a faithful employee and a faithful believer?

    Join me as I delve into this insightful piece. I’ll be posting my thoughts chapter by chapter, and hope you will interact with your own comments, insights and opinions.

    Contents

    1. Changing Our Minds About Work
    2. Kingdom Living
    3. Redefining Success
    4. You Are Here: God As Our Reference Point
    5. Not a Trivial Pursuit
    6. Training as a Disciple of Christ
    7. The Nucleus of Change

    Get your copy and read along!

  • In~Verse: Rilke’s Book of Hours

    I am, you anxious one.

    Don’t you sense me, ready to break
    into being at your touch?
    My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
    Can’t you see me standing before you
    cloaked in stillness?
    Hasn’t my longing ripened in you
    from the beginning
    as fruit ripens on a branch?

    I am the dream you are dreaming.
    When you want to awaken, I am that wanting:
    I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
    And with the silence of stars I enfold
    your cities made by time.

    Book of HoursRainer Maria Rilke
    Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
    Riverhead Books, New York, 2005
    (I, 19; p. 81)

  • In~Verse: Brueggemann’s Sustained by Angels

    Maybe we have not thought much about Satan,
    either in glib self-regard,
    or in rejection of such silly speculation,
    or in a way more urbane and benign
    than to imagine such a character.

    Except that as we begin our strenuous Lenten trek,
    we are aware
    that the power of resistance is at work in our midst
    that the force of negation is alive and well,
    that our best will is contradicted
    by stuff that surges
    against our best selves,
    that we, even we, are prone to our
    several addictions that render us helpless.

    So we pray in the Lenten season,
    give us primitive freedom to
    take full stock of Satan and the power of
    evil still among us in our prosperity and
    wealth and sophistication,
    and give us primitive openness
    to your ministering angels
    who are present with care and gentleness
    and great nourishment.

    In the Lenten season, give us freedom
    to reconfigure our lives
    as a testing field between the force of Satan
    and the food of your angels.

    Enter our lives with power for newness,
    deliver us from a sense of naive mastery,
    and give us honest contact with our vulnerability.

    Enter the deep places of our life and claim us for your purposes.
    We would be more free than we are,
    more bold than we dare,
    more obedient than we choose.

    We wait for the gift of your large gift of life
    that will wrench us away from death
    to the miracle of Easter joy.

    PrayersWalter Brueggemann
    Prayers for a Privileged People
    Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2008
    (pp. 29, 30)

    (Good even if it’s not Lent.)