sustain:if:able kiwi

mat theology: a dictionary of everyday contemporary spirituality

God is everywhere. While sadly sometimes Christianity reduces God to Sunday and to buildings, God by very definition belongs in all of everyday life. In honour of this, I’m building a dictionary of everyday spirituality.

This is a mat on the ground floor of a central city business.

It was the word “devine” that caught my attention. I checked the spelling. “Devine” not “divine.” So it’s not a correctly spelt God reference. (It’s a housing company). Yet the symbol is interesting. The colours are warm and welcoming and the sign looks like a sun.

And then the tag line – “Welcome. Find your ideal place.” Which seems to me to be what Christianity is about. A faith of welcome. An invitation not to be forced into a cookie cutter or someone else’s image, but to find our unique and special place. I often talk about how each person has their own unique fingerprint and so the task of spiritual growth is simply to grow into who we are truely, uniquely, meant to be.

Churches can be very, very poor at laying out this type of mat and putting it into practise, at “Welcome. Find your ideal place,” at hospitality and uniquely personalised growth, at participation based not on one-size fits all, but accessible and intentional processes based on uniqueness.

So it was nice to be reminded that my experiences of some church are not actually the gospel. That the real message of God’s “devine” grace is in fact “Welcome. Find your ideal place.”

(This is another entry in dictionary of everyday spirituality. For the complete index of all entries, go here).

billboard theology: a dictionary of everyday contemporary spirituality

God is everywhere. While sadly sometimes Christianity reduces God to Sunday and to buildings, God by very definition belongs in all of everyday life. In honour of this, I’m building a dictionary of everyday spirituality.

This is a billboard hanging on the pub closest to my work. God is named. Heaven is depicted. What is striking is that to understand this billboard you need to know the creation story. Fascinating for an allegedly secular country! While I am not convinced that alcohol represents the fullness of heaven, I love the suggestion that life to the full – in relaxation, in enjoyment – might be part of God’s creative work.

(This is another entry in dictionary of everyday spirituality. For the complete index of all entries, go here).

A poem. For a friend turning 30

(This is another entry in dictionary of everyday spirituality, under the heading M is for milestones.

How should I serve God?

Follow your thumbprint. You are the only person to have it. Look at it every morning. Thank God for what you’ve been gifted with.

How should I have a deep marriage?

Trace your wife’s fingerprint. Look at her print every morning. Thank God for what you’ve been gifted with.

How should I raise my kids?

Trace your kid’s fingerprint. They are different from you. They will not be you. Nourish their uniqueness. Help them appreciate their print every morning. Thank God for what you’ve been gifted with.

How should I become more like Jesus?

Follow his fingerprint. It’s all over you and all over the world. Look at it every morning. Thank God for what you’ve been gifted with.

For the index in the Dictionary of Everyday spirituality, go here.

the craft of work? a theology getting me out of bed

This is another entry in the dictionary of everyday contemporary spirituality: W for the craft of work

I picked up philosopher, Richard Sennett’s book The Craftsman a few weeks ago. It was the embossed pencils that made up the book cover that caught my eye …

And then I checked the back and a whole lot of things clicked in my head. The book explores craftsmanship, the desire to do a job well, for it’s own sake and suggests this as a template for living.

• craft as technique. Not mindless procedure, but the cultures in which we might flourish
• craft as a unique and individual blend of skill, commitment and judgment
• craft as the aligning of head and heart, intuition and intelligence, history and innovation

Which got me thinking about what gets me out of bed and how I approach work. When I mark an essay, it can be a burden. But could it be something to craft – through the assignments I set, the comments I make, the best practice examples I provide, the clarity of my responses.

When I teach, it can be stress of preparation. Or it can be the entering of sacred space, those moments of learning that will be unique to this moment and this group.

When I seek to innovate within academic structures, to implement new pioneer ministry/social entrepreneurial training options (details any day now) or to create a missional masters , it can be the drudgery of administration, or search for clarity around best practice.

When I meet with a post-graduate student, it can be an appointment. Or an attempt to craft a unique learning experience, to co-operate with what God has already been doing in a person’s life, the discernment of discipleship as God’s spirit shapes and moulds.

When I start researching, it is a craft honed by others into which I enter. As I write, it is a deadline. Or the time to bring vague thoughts into communicative life through the craft of concrete black and white shapes, to hone the tools of grammar and punctuation to make plain my flights of fancy.

Such is craft.

Theologically, this links with Robert Banks book, God the Worker: Journeys Into the Mind, Heart and Imagination of God. He suggests that God is a musician and a composer, a designer and a garment maker, an architect and builder, a crafter and an artisan. (I’ve been part of writing more on this here).

And humans are made in the image of God the Crafter.

To be honest, the workload this year has at times nearly consumed me. New job, new responsibilities, new culture – so many adjustments. It’s been too easy to view work as draining.

Work as craft. It provides a different way to approach the day and the desk, the week and the workload.