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When we consider the world outside ourselves, it is made up of two realities. The first is the ultimate reality of God, the one who made us, and to whom we are everlastingly in debt. The other reality is creation, which includes all the created order that is external to myself. When I am out of fellowship with God, the only thing available to pursue besides Him is some created bauble. And when I pursue that created thing, trying to get from a finite thing what only the infinite can provide, I have fallen into the vanity of idolatry.
can, if they wish, read about your grumbles over lunch. But if you are alive, vibrant, and forgiven, you now live in a world where you can project that in amazing ways.
It is not a matter of this technique or that one, this social media trick or that one, but rather experiencing the presence of Christ in your life and communicating that.
As I said, one necessary aspect of that trust is the refusal to try to control the future through utopian schemes. God will provide.
So my responsibility is, so to speak, whatever is in front of me, there on my workbench or desk or counter. I should do a first-rate job with that, and other things will fall into place. And as they fall into place, it will not be the impersonal doing of Adam Smith’s invisible hand. Every blessing a Christian ever receives is from a pierced hand.
This accumulation of man hours can come in one of two forms, or in a combination of the two. The first is a large enough population size to allow any specialist to be summoned, and the second is the incarnation of a specialist’s knowledge in a tool.
Because it is a form of wealth, the bias contained within technological advancements is toward forgetting God.
The work that we will do by the grace of God, and to which God will respond with “well done, good and faithful servant,” will be work that is teeny tiny.
We would say he grows beautiful flowers, but when we step back and think about it, out of all the work that is being done in that greenhouse, what percentage of it is the gardener doing? One percent? And what percentage is God doing in and through that mysterious instrument of His called life?
God created us for glory, and there is no way for us to find a switch that will turn that off. We are inveterate glory-seekers, and the thing that distinguishes a good man from a bad man is what he finds glorious—not whether he finds something glorious.
Many Christians think their problem lies in the verbs, when it actually lies in the direct objects and in the adverbs.
He enables forgiven sinners to attempt audacious things, and to do so without vainglory or lust for an ego shrine built in one’s own honor.
We often have hidden reserves that even we do not suspect.
Setting ambitious goals is therefore a good thing, and determining whether or not we are desiring something sinful, or desiring it sinfully, is heart work. We do that heart work by praying to the Lord about it, by reading the Word faithfully, looking to be instructed, and by worshiping God together with His people, gathering regularly to be edified by Word and sacrament. Every week you place all your ambitions on His altar and watch them ascend to Heaven in a column of smoke. When you get to your office Monday morning, they will be there on your desk, cleansed and waiting for you.
The idea of mastery is to develop genuine expertise within the radius or labor that God has given you, such that when you ask God—Jabez-like—to enlarge your border, you can do it with a clean conscience (1 Chron. 4:10).
So the first step in achieving mastery is taking responsibility for the results. You should know what the best practices are. You should constantly be learning something fresh and new in your field.
Another key to mastery is realizing that the key to originality is imitation.
The second good thing about imitation is that it enables you to build on the good work that others have done, which is really the only healthy direction that originality can go.
But fifteen minutes a day can be had. That can be found. Here is the power of plodding. Suppose you wanted to write a novel of sixty thousand words. Daunting, right? That’s a big steak there. Carve it up into bite-sized pieces. Commit to writing a hundred words a day, no matter what.
But you likely have another spare fifteen minutes a day lying about, not to mention some other possible projects you have your eye on. Chip away at them. Do a little bit, and do not fall for the idea that unless you can pour yourself into something for half a year, there is no point doing it at all.
I say this from experience. What plodding requires is predictability and routine. This is not a process that thrives in the midst of chaos.
But the Bible teaches that whenever a gift is given, there will immediately be a temptation arising in our hearts to steal the glory and gratitude that should go to God alone.
God gives wealth, and man takes credit for it himself. If someone else comes along later and blames man for creating all this wealth and demands that we have ourselves a little “social justice” around here, he is just creating an extra layer of sedimentary silliness. And by this point, we don’t need any extra layers of silliness.
Another way of thinking about this is that we are not conducting a presidential campaign, trying to get as many people as possible to vote for Jesus, so that if we are successful, then He can assume a position of authority. No, His position is already one of a conquering monarch, and He is already on the throne. He has been seated on the throne of a cosmic empire, and our task is to announce this already accomplished coronation to all the people in the outlying villages.
