Dear Faith Family,
Oh! Teach us to live well! Teach us to live wisely and well!
Let your work be shown to your servants
and your glorious power to their children. (Psalm 90:12, 16)
Our faith makes two presumptions about daily life. One, that there is indeed a way to live well and wisely; and not. Two, that we learn this way through curious observation and humble imitation within the bounds of a gracious Love.
Generally, and rightly, we think of this observation and imitation in relation to Christ Jesus. After all, he did say, "Go and make disciples of all nations...teaching them to observe all that I have commanded (Matt. 28:19-20) and "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). Unfortunately, however, we also tend to limit the application of our observations and imitations to the realms of religious practices and attitudes.
Whatever Jesus shows us about how to live has to do with only a part of our life (even if a significant part); i.e., our relationship to God and how we view others. Whatever implications that might have for the other parts of life (i.e., our responsibilities in the home and community, our vocations, our labor, our leisure, and the like) are a product of osmosis, a gradual equalizing of our attitudes and affections in these places with the attitudes of our faith.
Yet, is that all that there is to a living well and wisely: to have the right attitude and affections in our daily living?
Certainly, a life lived well and wisely does require properly ordered attitudes and affections, which the life of Jesus allows us to observe and imitate. Yet, we said, Jesus' work fundamentally changes all of life, not just our hearts, but also our hands and our heads. The death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus restores our full humanity. A restoration that devotes our hearts, minds, and agency together, towards a singular, yet marvelously myriad purpose: the fullness (maturation or fulfillment) of all created life. A restoration that takes us back to the beginning, as one scholar and priest reminds us:
“Let us then remind ourselves of the starting point. The created order, which God has begun to redeem in the resurrection of Jesus, is a world in which heaven and earth are designed not to be separated but to come together. In that coming together, ‘the very good’ that God spoke over creation at the beginning will be enhanced, not abolished…taken up into God’s larger purposes, no doubt, but certainly not abandoned.” (N.T. Wright)
As we discussed on Sunday, the opening chapters of life's beginnings tell a story of humanity observing creation to learn its essential nature and worth and how to keep and work it by imitating (reflecting) its Creator so that all that the Creator desired might come to fruition through the hands and mind of His beloved image bearers (Gen. 2:4-19). Because we are restored to right relationship with God through Jesus, we are able to do the work for which we are made.
"Our office and our delight are to look at the world in all the distinctive ways that humans can, so that in communion with us it can come to fruition." (Spencer Klavan)
In communion with Christ, we observe how God has made things and people to flourish, we see the dignity and necessity of what has been made, and we act in ways that draw out that rightness(eousness) and draw them into it, so that we might make a life of perfection (teleios, purpose). That too, is what we learn as we observe and intimate the life of Christ, our life with Christ (Eph. 2:4-10).
The beauty and wonder of this purpose, of the work of making life complete, is that it can be done regardless of our vocation or field, whether our work takes place mostly in a home or an office, whether we work primarily with our minds or our hands, or whether we work for others or others work of us.
Imagine the life you can make and live if you devote each day to curious observation and humble imitation in the places and labors of work. After all, this is what you are (re)made for.
Love you, faith family. God bless.