With Open Hands

so i'm doing super great at my new years resolution to blog more, eh?

well here I am.....with some thoughts brewing that I'm hoping will become fleshed out as i type. we'll see if it makes any sense in the process.....

i work with college students and am preparing for our upcoming Jubilee Conference. The conference invites students to view all of life--their academics, future vocations, relationships, life rhythms, work & play, etc.--as an avenue through which one can worship Christ.

so we have folks like Jessica Jackley, founder of kiva.org, Bill Strickland, Gary Haugen, president of IJM--incredible people who cast a vision of living for something, Someone, bigger than ourselves. Many of these folks are young, creating their own organizations, pouring their lives into a work worth living for.

The vision of the Jubilee Conference, and I believe the vision of the Scriptures in general, is that in the midst of the mundane we have an opportunity to lay down our lives as worship in our "everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life" as Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message. So we want students to catch a vision for being apart of the Kingdom, something bigger than themselves. and sometimes that looks really crazy like freeing folks from sex trafficking .... and sometimes it looks like doing a paper really well in a class you hate.

I know that we stress the latter situation as much, if not more so, as the former. but I sometimes worry what our message becomes in a culture of self-entitlement.

That is, I wonder if we all expect our dream jobs post-graduation. and not just in a slightly naive, not quite sure of how hard post-grad life can be. but it's as if being apart of a Kingdom-building vocation will feel exhilarating every day. certainly when we believe that our work is a significant part of building the Kingdom--whether it's campus ministry or accounting, freeing slaves or teaching kids in the suburbs--there is meaning that brings joy and abundant life. but there are also days when it doesn't feel like a really fun job.

I hear stories about people saying no to jobs because it's not exactly what they were looking for. or quitting jobs because they just don't like it. and for some this seems to really be the most life-giving, Kingdom minded choice. but I wonder if we're just too lazy, too idealistic (eek), too entitled, too _______ to push through the messyness of the mundane. Can we only feel fulfilled if we work for IJM, a domestic violence shelter, or some other compelling mission? Is it possible to go to a desk and work in accounting at your average firm for the Kingdom and experience joy?

I don't want to contribute to an entitlement mindset, this time with a Jesus label. But I do believe that the rich truth that Jesus cares deeply about every square inch of creation and in Him all things hold together infuses our jobs with meaning. It seems just like the God we worship to invite us into a work that feels really "boring" and ask Him to breathe life into it, to ask God where He is at work in mundane projects, and to work towards restoration one day, one meeting, one project at a time.