Dixie has a great new post on her blog. She quotes a comment about asceticism and family life:
“The place of asceticism in the life of a family? If you set aside your own will on a continuing basis — if you prepare meals for the family when you would really rather sit down and read a book — if you go out to work day after day and hand over your paycheck to support the family when you were really hoping for a new set of golf clubs — if you do the supper dishes for your parents or watch your baby brother when you would really rather be on the phone with your friends — if you sit with your aging parent when you would really rather be doing almost *anything* else in the world — you don’t have to worry about asceticism in family life. Family life contains all the asceticism you need. The one thing needful is to see it all as obedience to the will of God for you, for now.”
Gene Veith comments about Luther’s view of Vocation and states:
"The ordinary routine of making a living, going shopping, being a good citizen, and spending time with one's family, are spheres in which God is at work, through human means. Luther described the various occupations - parenthood, farming, laborers, soldiers, judges, retailers, and the like - as all being "masks of God."
...In the Lord's Prayer, we ask that God give us our daily bread, which He does. He does so, not directly as with the manna to the Israelites, but through the work of farmers, truck drivers, bakers, retailers, and many more. In fact, He gives us our daily bread through the functioning of the whole accompanying economic system - employers and employees, banks and investors, the transportation infrastructure and technological means of production - each part of which is interdependent and necessary, if we are going to eat.
Each part of this economic food chain is a vocation, through which God works to distribute His gifts."
Posts
2 comments:
Hmm... The contrast of the two quotes is interesting. At first they seem to be about the same thing, a person's role in life, but the emphasis is vastly different. The Orthodox way is to struggle and suffer in love on account of those around you in your daily life. Veith's insight seems to put you as a cog in a machine that God uses, whereby you receive His gifts.
One is active, one is passive.
Blessings on your journey!
Yes! Emily, I wasn't able to put words to it but had the same reaction...initially they looked very similar but beneath the surface there was quite a difference. The Orthodox description is one describing the practice of "active love".
Post a Comment