I might not be the best person to be writing this. After an eleven-year career in business in my twenties and early thirties, I’ve been an ordained pastor now for nearly twenty-seven years. There are two phrases heavily used in ministry circles that drive me crazy–...
A few weeks ago I brought up the topic of vocation, or calling. Right around that time, Frederick Buechner, whose work I had included in that email, passed away at the age of 96. His works have been significant for innumerable people, both directly and indirectly,...
I mentioned last week that I spent time recently with friends from college, and this group loves asking deep questions about life and faith. During our time together, we had some assigned reading by Parker Palmer (Let your Life Speak) on the topic of vocation.I find...
This past week I have been at a reunion with college friends (this is the main reason I missed last week’s update). It’s been significant for a number of reasons. I hope to unpack a few other ideas from the trip in the future, but I thought I would begin...
In this modern day parable, Alan Fadling describes a king and his two servants. Each of the servants desires to do the will of the king, but they approach their work very differently: One of the servants, for fear of not pleasing his master, rose early each day to...
Sometimes Working More Decreases Productivity [A study from Stanford] found that productivity per hour declines sharply when the workweek exceeds 50 hours, and productivity drops off so much after 55 hours that there’s no point in working any more. That’s right,...
