WEEK 1 REFLECTION 1. What jumped out at you? In Chapter One of the Every Good Endeavor, Keller looks at the design of work and declares it to not only be noble, but an intricate part of God’s plan for man (Keller, p. 22). Keller explains to us the special view of work presented in the Bible and reminds us that work should not be seen as a form of punishment (p. 27). Instead, we should be reminded that “work was part of paradise” as told in Genesis and that God also worked in the beginning (p. 22). What jumped out at me from this chapter is how Keller argues that “work is not all there is to life” and that if we believe that “our work is the meaning of our life” then we won’t have a meaningful life (p 27). He goes on to say, that when we make our work the purpose of our life, …show more content…
How can you apply it to your personal life? This week’s reading helped to remind me that there is nothing wrong with hard work and for some reason, we have been told that our work does not matter to God because it is evil. Keller, however, argues that our work does matter and that it “was not a necessary evil that came into the picture later or something that human beings created to do but that was beneath the great God himself” (p. 21). He goes on to tell us that “God worked for the sheer joy of it” (p. 21). However, it is important to understand that while God created man to work, He also created us to rest – just as he did on the seventh day. This helps me to be okay with me actually taking a day off from all of the busyness of life. Often times with work, school and family commitments I feel as though, I can’t afford to take a day off to just rest. I feel guilty thinking that I am doing nothing, when I should be doing homework, cleaning my house, running errands, spending time with family and friends. However, I have to learn that sometimes I just need to take some time to be alone and spend it with God, reading his Word or just being still in His
Jonathan Klemens’ definition of the Protestant work ethic found in his essay, “The Protestant Work Ethic: Just Another 'Urban Legend?'" pulls inspiration from Max Weber. Klemens’ takes the religious aspect out of Weber’s definition and transforms it from a three part definition to a four part definition. The first part of his definition is passion which is closely followed by commitment and hard work. The fourth and final aspect is innovation. According to Klemens these four parts are essential to a successful and efficient work ethic.
Dorothy L. Sayers defines a Christian’s work as a “...natural exercise and function of man- the creature who is made in the image of his Creator” (Sayers 194). Sayers summarizes her view on work by saying, “...it is the duty of the Church to see to it that the work serves God, and that the worker serves the work” (Sayers 198). Sayers finds the duty of work to rest not only with the Christian, but also with the church.
In the excerpt from The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert this was shown to us by the Alma, Henry Whitaker's daughter. She observed something that was more thrilling than anything she has ever seen and because she asked to be apart of, she was allowed to be a part of something meaningful to her. An individuals has the power to create a meaningful life if they strive for what they value in life, because if they don’t try as hard as they could they will not be able to live a purposeful life.
One of the most important points in this book is that no matter what you’re going through you have to find your meaning to life. If you don’t have a meaning to life or something to live for then there’s no chance of you surviving whatever you may be going through. You have to find whatever positive thing in your life to make it through any time of your life. In the book, he wrote this, “For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a
This paper focuses mainly on the sincereity as well as the passion with which we do our job. Human body is a very sophisticated machine created by God himself. It can do all sorts of things but there are a few things at which the human body gets very perfect.And that perfectness comes from practice, devotion,love,sincerity and responsibility towards that particular thing. Let me associate the word "thing" in the previous sentence as working. Working for living. Reason I chose to write on this topic was that the Poem " Singapore" written by author Mary Oliver that I read in the book by John Schilb and John Clifford influenced me alot. The Poem narrates the life of a woman which works on an aeroplane and is cleaning teh restrooms which are very dirty. She visually and physically finds the job dirty. But while cleaning that restrooms she sees it in her own world.She finds her hands working in pleasure as she is wondering the scenes of rivers. She realises the truth of life that she has to work to earn her living.
In the initial chapter, “Longing and Hope,” Plantinga (2002) discusses how humans yearn to reconnect to God. He outlines the work God did to create the cosmos, the world, and all of the creatures in it—including humans. He reminds the audience of the sense of wonder God instilled in humans, and how this wonder can be explored—even in the field of Science. Following this, Plantinga discusses the combination of faith and good works: “According to God’s intelligence, the way to thrive is to help others to thrive; the way to flourish is to cause others to flourish; the way to fulfill yourself is to spend yourself” (Chapter
Henry David Thoreau argues that when people are thinking too much and focus on details, “our life is frittered away by detail.” (p.276) People keep working in the bustling world, and forget the beauty of nature and our world. Thoreau also says “As for work, we haven’t any of any consequence”(p.277), what he means is that people are working meaninglessly, they are
"Usually, the quest for the meaning finds expression in a commitment to action, and in one's personal relationships. The building up of a professional career, for example, demands that we identify an activity that suits us and in which we can flourish, and that we settle on a goal and objectives to be achieved. The same can be true of our personal relationships: if we decide to have a family and raise children, we organize our lives in accordance with this decision, and our family life gives meaning to our existence." (Lenoir 30)
The Book of Job is one of the three books in the Hebrew bible whose genre is described as wisdom literature.1 Certainly the Book of Job satisfies the literary conventions that qualify a biblical book for such status. 2 Yet Job may be associated with wisdom in a much more literal sense. The Book of Job attempts to deal with a problematic question that confronts suffering humanity: why do bad things happen to good people? The variety and vehemence of commentators' contemporary responses to this chapter of the Bible is testament to the continued relevance of the Book of Job's wisdom thousands of years after it was written. Although the commentators examined herein arrive at differing and sometimes conflicting conclusions after reading the story of "the holy Arab"3, none are left indifferent.
Again, I believe Taylor is missing some important feature to his theory. It seems he is correct in stating one should have their own sense of meaning to their life not just others’ perception that one’s life is meaningful. However, there is still the problem of giving equal meaning to everyone life that is doing what they love to do. As a result, to answer this problem one could suggest in order for one to have a meaningful life a person must be subjectively fulfilled by pursuing objectively valuable ends. This way it ensures the person must find meaning in their own lives as well as creating something that benefits many that will give others the perception the person has a meaningful life.
In the essay “Work in an Industrial Society” by Erich Fromm, the author explains how work used to carry a profound satisfaction, however today workers only care about their payment for their labor. Fromm opens up with how craftsmanship was developed in the thirteenth and fourteenth century. It was not until the Middle ages, Renaissance and the eighteenth century, when craftsmanship was at its peak. According to C.W. Mills, workers were free to control his or her own working actions, learn from their work and develop their skills and capacities. Despite what Mills says, people today spend their best energy for seven to eight hours a day to produce “something”. Majority of the time, we do not see the final
The poem, “What Work Is” by Philip Levine is an intricate and thought-provoking selection. Levine uses a slightly confusing method of describing what work actually is. He gives the idea that work is very tedious, however necessary. It is miserable, however, it is a sacrifice that is essentially made by many, if not all able-bodied members of society. Many have to sacrifice going to a concert or a movie, but instead works jobs with hardly a manageable salary. This poem seems to have a focus on members of the lower-class or middle-class who live paycheck to paycheck and are unable to put money away for a future for their children or for a vacation and how difficult life can be made to be while living under this type of circumstance. Levine
Helen Keller, the first deaf blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. In all, she wrote 12 books and many articles, including but not limited to: The Story of my Life, Optimism, The World I Live In, The Song of the Stone Wall, Out of the Dark, My Religion, Midstream-My Late Life, Peace at Eventide, Helen Keller in Scotland, Helen Keller’s Journal, Let Us Have Faith, Teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, and The Open Door.
Memory is the information we stored in our brain. There are three types of memory. First is the sensory memory is the shortest term of memory which only last less than a second, it is our ability to hold the information from our 5 senses after we the original stimulus is gone. Short term memory is the information we hold in our mind for a short period which is less than a minute. Long term memory is the information that store in our brain for a long period of time. There are two types of long term memory, which are explicit memory(conscious) and implicit memory(unconscious). Explicit memory is also known as declarative memory which are the memory of experience (episodic memory) and memory of facts (semantic memory). Implicit
He did not consider studying and readins as being “work”. He states: “Men like to work`.” (Lodge 126)