The year is winding down, and life is unravelling a little around the edges. I’m no longer so keen to get up early and read my Bible. Chores go neglected. The kids’ homework tapers off, then stops. The days I planned so carefully at the start of the year and launched myself into with shiny new enthusiasm gradually become chaotic and disorganized. (more…)
Category Archives: Work
Sloth: Is it our problem?
Out of all the seven deadly sins, we may think that sloth is the least concerning for us. But, as Ben Underwood shows, our busyness and toil is just evidence we’re caught within sloth’s grip.
At the outset of a sermon series on the seven deadly sins, I asked people to choose the two deadly sins they thought hampered them most. Of the seven—greed, anger, pride, gluttony, lust, sloth and envy—sloth came in dead last, receiving only one vote. Where I am, people don’t seem to have problem with sloth or ‘under-working’. They don’t believe there’s nothing like sitting in the sun on a Tuesday afternoon; rather, they think there’s nothing like working till 11pm on a Tuesday night, for that is what they often do. (more…)
Wonder at my work
Life
There are rumours afoot that the key thing to think about when it comes to theological students is how much work they are not doing. A very strange shift has taken place somewhere, and it makes you wonder.
It is not unusual in our world-that-is-running-madly-after-Mammon to concentrate on (that is, be anxious about) busy-ness. Didn’t Jesus himself say that it takes a lot of crazy running around to make sure you get enough of the good things God wanted you to have anyway? You would hate to miss out on those, so get up early, steamroll your way to work, overload your timetable, pressurize your body and relationships—you know the drill.
Wrong reasoning for maternity leave
Life, Sola Panel
Australia’s federal government is seeking to introduce a nation paid maternity leave scheme in this year’s budget.
I not sure whether I’m for or against the policy itself. But I know I’m against the reasons being advanced for the policy!
Basically the reasoning being advanced implies that (i) motherhood is unproductive and (ii) it gives aid to the now established dogma that the two incomes needed to pay off the mortgage are more important than quality and quantity time with the kids.
Actually do it
Up front, Sola Panel
These three words are the secret to success in a multitude of circumstances. It’s certainly true of writing. When someone comes to me (as they quite often do), indicating their desire to be a writer, and then asks me how to go about it, I have only these three words to say to them: actually do it. (more…)
The Bible and the boardroom
Review
What is effective work?
Should the stewards object? A biblical approach to gambling
Life
Gambling seems obviously wrong to many Christians, and yet one searches in vain for a direct forbidding of it in the Bible. Are we justified in opposing the practice? Michael Hill takes up the issue.
The Sabbath Rest
Life
Workaholism
Workaholism is an addiction that needs remedy, much like alcoholism. Its symptoms are clear: long hours getting longer, work priorities overriding family and church; no time for recreation (what’s that?!). Workaholics can’t even go on holidays without taking their ball-and-chain mobile phone or laptop. But what is the underlying disease? What drives workaholism?
The servant’s paradox: Part III
Life
Here’s one more paradox for those living to serve Christ and to grow his kingdom. It’s one which has been taxing my mind, because it goes to the heart of what Christians believe. We live in the time that gets called ‘the now and not yet’—the period of history after Christ’s resurrection and ascension, but before the revelation of his lordship to the entire universe. It’s an in-between time, so we have the blessings and securities of the eternal age, and yet we don’t see them all, experience them all, know them entirely or enjoy them fully.