Working like God

Posted on 01/10/2012 by Joe

In the opening chapters of Genesis humanity’s dignity and pride of place in creation is affirmed – we are described as being “in God’s image”. We are also created to be workers, whose job is to rule over other creatures and till the land. In some sense, we might say we are “co-creators”. We establish and maintain order as God did and does, making it possible for life to flourish as God intended.

If we are indeed created in God’s image and to be workers, what might work in God’s image look like?

Firstly, it could suggest that work is something that is done in community. God as Trinity is one but also “communal”. Human beings are in God’s image together as men and women, not simply on our own.

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27, ESV, emphasis added)

Similarly, humans are not designed to function as islands, but to be together:

“The Lord God said, “It isn’t good for the man to live alone.”” (Genesis 2:18, CEV)

So, perhaps the first thing we might say about working in God’s image is that it means work should not always or primarily be viewed as something we do on our own. It is important for people to work together and to understand that the greatest tasks we have been given by God can only be fulfilled corporately. We all have individual parts to play, but work is healthier in community of some kind (e.g. in teams).

Secondly, the creation account of Genesis 1 suggests very strongly that God is a God of order. He assigns each element of His creation a particular place and role, bringing a sense of order out of the primeval chaos. The God of the Bible is not chaotic.

This suggests that some structure to our work is useful. We should be establishing and maintaining order in this world and need structure ourselves to do so. This is not a rigid, inflexible order that stifles, but one that enables creation to flourish. Chaos and randomness are not God-like qualities, so working like Him would involve some sense of bringing about a benevolent order that benefits all.

Thirdly, God is a creative God who brings about new things and enables His creatures to flourish. This might suggest that our work could and should involve creativity in various forms. We can bring “new things” into being, whether they are ideas or objects, following in the creative footsteps of our God.

Work that removes all possibility of creativity is, therefore, dehumanising. If we are simply cogs in a machine, slaves to procedures, not allowed to think outside the box or do anything other than repeat what we have always done, we will not be acting in God’s image and be fully human.

So, we might say that healthy work environments require (amongst other things, this is not an exhaustive list!) some degree of communal/team work, a sense of order and structure as well as the freedom to be creative.

What do you think? Is this your experience of work? When one or more elements are missing, how has it affected your work?

Wonderfully Made

Posted on 19/09/2012 by Joe

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.” (Psalm 139:14, ESV)

The human body is an amazing thing. Yes, it goes wrong and degrades as we get older, but in the main it is incredible how well it all works. There is so much going on all the time – heart pumping, nerves firing, lungs breathing, intestines digesting, and many other functions besides.

The eye is just one small part of us that quietly gets on with doing so much without us even thinking about it. Yes, many of us experience problems with our vision, but the fact is that the human eye is still an amazing piece of kit.

Despite their tiny size, our eyes are capable of focussing on objects near and far in great detail at amazing speed. To capture the full range of what we can see would require many many different camera lenses, not to mention the difficulties of achieving on a photo the range of colours and contrasts our eyes can cope with.

If you have a camera, try taking a clear, accurate picture of a close up object, something far away, in bright sunlight, in a dark room, looking at a night sky and underwater (don’t try this at home!) all without changing the lens or settings. Even if you can manage a reasonable focus for some of these, you just can’t do them all without changing something more radically – e.g. adding flash, macro lenses, waterproof casing, etc.

Your eyes are just one small part of you and look how well they can handle so many varied situations compared to our technology. It is not easy to match mechanically and electronically what our bodies can achieve. We are developing new technologies all the time which get closer, but none are quite as effective as our bodies.

Your brain stores unbelievable amounts of data, without you even trying. Just to read this article you are remembering many details – language structures, vocabulary meaning, decoding the marks into words, etc. You are the most fantastic creation ever!

Sometimes life can make us feel like we have little worth. We might be struggling as parts of us don’t work as well as they used to. Yet, we are still great creations – so much more than any machine. Our bodies remind us of the greatest designer of them all: God.

Humans are the only entities in the universe not only to carry the image of God in us, we are the only life-form that God has chosen to become; in Jesus, God became man.

No person is ever worthless. All of us are wonderfully made. Even when things go wrong, we are still incredible creations – better and more valuable than any machine. Human life is amazing and worth praising our Creator for.

Reading the Bible – 2 Simple Questions

Posted on 14/09/2012 by Joe

Reading the Bible can sometimes seem very complicated and confusing. The huge distance in history and culture may cause us to wonder if we can make any sense of it without specialist knowledge.

There are many tools that can be learned to help us study Scripture. In the main, they basically tend to boil down to 2 key questions that we can ask:

1) Why?
2) So what?

The first question, “why?”, relates to the text and what has fed into it. We ask why the author might have wanted to write this – what kinds of circumstances may have caused them to think this piece of writing useful or essential? Why is it structured the way it is? Why has it been included in our Bibles?

There are various resources that can help us to address the “why?” question. Historical and cultural studies may be of some value and so consulting commentaries may be useful. Also, when we come to think of how the text is written, an appreciation of literary technique – their skills as a writer – may come into play. If these feel too much like the tools of the expert for use in dusty studies only, then we can often get similar results by using our imagination – try to put yourself in the place of the author/first readers.

Answering the “why?” question is not an exact science. We simply cannot know for sure what the circumstances of writing were or what was going through the author’s mind. Using historical or literary tools may help us to understand better, yet in essence what they do is inform and feed our imaginative leaps at grasping “why?”. We trust also that God’s Holy Spirit is involved, speaking to us as we wrestle with the text.

The second question “so what?” is very similar to our first. The slight difference is that it concerns itself more with our present circumstances. What significance do our findings from the passage have for us today?

This cannot help but be a subjective exercise. We cannot judge what matters to us today without already involving our own cultures, theologies and preferences. Moreover, our present situation and experiences will in part dictate what is “important” to us at the time, meaning that the “so what?” aspect of a passage may vary depending on when we read it.

If we don’t ask the “so what?” question, then we risk being left with historical artefacts or dry doctrines and systematic theologies. These things can be learnt and even agreed to without them having to affect us or the way we live. Everything is abstract rather than concrete. Asking “so what?” helps to ground our interaction with the text – we are coming to it with a purpose, not just to dig up a load of information.

The 2 questions do not always operate separately as we read. They can and do blur. For example, we can weigh up the usefulness of the answers we find to “why?” by constantly asking “so what?” – there can be a constant interaction between the past and our present.

A great deal of Bible reading involves the imagination and is an “art” not an exact science. Even if we don’t delve into “scholarly” methods, we can still help ourselves to get a lot from each passage simply by asking why it is there and what the significance is for us. If we can’t find any, then maybe we either need to work harder or come back another time as it isn’t speaking to us right now.

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Posted on 11/09/2012 by Joe

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