I used to think that my worst nightmare would be waking up as church worker one morning and realising I no longer believe in Jesus but being trapped in a job out of pragmatic concerns.
Now I realise an even worse tragedy would be to wake up and realise I do believe in Jesus but am trapped in a job out of pragmatic concerns.
Your Correspondent, Caught comfort eating the communion wafers
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Great. Now that’s my greatest fear. Should I stop reading this blog?
i suspect that is the only sensible course of action left to you!
But many people believe in Jesus and work for pragmatic reasons. I think I’m missing your meaning?
we all work for pragmatic reasons. lest we starve. no?
Consider the lillies of the field…….or somesuch
mm, I thought of that aftwards Eoin, albeit reluctantly. But it can be seriously difficult not to do the best you can to work hard with the primary purpose of making money in order to take care of others. Is it that a leap of faith used to be easier when I had only myself to look after, or is it that it isn’t always possible to follow every biblical principle in every scenario, because they contradict one another at least on a shallow level? How do you know when you’re ‘hating your wife and life’ in order to follow God, since following God then means loving others? Love can’t just be a spritual matter, so pragmatism is bound to come into play. I don’t know any Christian who doesn’t use money after all, even if they don’t love it. Couldn’t it mean working at something that isn’t your dream, if that’s what it seems you’re called to do at the time?
There is something tragic about working for pragmatic reasons all right, though probably not on the same scale of tragedy as Jesus dying on the cross, even if it did work for my salvation.
My reasons for working are not as pure as all that, but it’s not easy to remember the lillies of the field when supposedly serving God from an office in the city.