As a preface, I never said I was the most timely person in the world. While surfing Mike McLoughlin's Faith at Work blog, I came across his post in April called Richard Mouw on our Calling to Holy Worldliness. I loved the close of Mike's post.
I asked Dr. Mouw a question similar to a question I had asked Miroslav Volf speaking on God at Work at the Yale Divinity School during last year’s consultation. If God cares for our work, how do you respond to those who place more value on certain types of work and less value on other types of work. I used Rick Warren’s comment in the Purpose Driven Life as an example. (See this post for the exact quote.) Warren states, our mission is forever, our job is only temporary, in referring to the work of mission in the workplace.
Mouw answered, “How people handle life has eternal significance. I worry about that polarized notion of time verse eternity that makes the stuff we do in church the important work and other work is just to pay the way. I think that’s wrong. I’m not saying that’s what Rick means. I think there is a danger that that can reinforce all the wrong thinking by following that course.
Farming has profound theological significance. I attended a meeting of the Christian Farmer’s meeting where they talked about a Christian egg policy for Canada. These were not theologically trained Christians but believers who cared deeply about God’s creation… at one point a farmer stood up and said with a Dutch accent. ‘Colonel Sanders wants us to treat our chickens like little packages of meat that can be bought or sold, but I think CHICKENS ARE CHICKENS! God wants chickens to be able to strut their stuff in front of other chickens!” He was saying, there is a certain dignity to the creation that has to be treated as having a dignity of its own. You just can’t do anything you want to chickens in order to sell them. It has implications to your relationship to the eternal God. He asks us to manage creation, to be earth keeping, in accordance with the will of God.”
So there you have it on the authority of the President of Fuller Seminary, “Chickens are Chickens!” Which means there is eternal value to the work we do because it is done in service to the Creator God. Well said, Dr. Mouw!
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