Spirituality and work

How can I lead people to find the spirituality of work from the ivory tower of vocational church life?  How can my spiritual formation matter to people in the real world when I am seen as an oddity? Spirituality is my work. I am paid to pray, to study scripture and sit and think for long stretches.  How can I say anything of substance to Marv about finding Jesus in the oil and gears of the engine I barely understand?  How can I ask Jeff to find Jesus in the electricity flowing in the lines he is repairing at the sugar factory on a Sunday morning, keeping him from joining us at church?  What does my intimacy with Jesus do for the retiree struggling with meaning after putting in years of labor at the steering gear plant while I haven’t loaded my “sixteen tons?”

These are just the questions I live with in a blue-collar community. I’m not sure I would be any better equipped to minister to them if I were shackled to an industrial job – especially if I was thrown off balance and couldn’t manage to continue to explore my spiritual formation. No, a pastor is what they need, but how to make it real to them that work can be more than what we do? Spiritual direction would be a wonderful place to explore this.  Most of my working people aren’t seeking the spiritual let alone direction. Perhaps informally, doing direction with out them realizing I am – allowing my own deepening in grace to form questions and conversations that would get them thinking and looking for the presence of God at work.

mojo or nojo?

Work is the engine that drives production. It is that labor of mind, body and will that gives birth to result. This engine needs fuel to run. As one classmate remarked recently, every action, word and deed burns a little life. The work-engine will run either on one of two substances.

Mojo
I define mojo (n.) in the following ways:

1. The energy to produce.
2. The desire to do.
3. The erotic vitality to create, the muse, the imago dei imitating the Creator’s activity.
Mojo is a spiritual substance. It is created by contact with the Holy and those things the Creator has built in as buttons to bring us to life. It is the genius that hears the bat qol the echoes of divine whisperings.

In absence of mojo
In absence of soul mojo the work-engine will burn naked soul, sucking the life from the working person and offering barriers to contact with the Holy.

Work maybe for profit or not. It may be professional or merely routine effort. Some kinds of work are more prone to sucking soul, as some engines burn oil. As this fuel is intrinsically spiritual – soulful – the worker can be employed even in soul sucking work if through contact with the Holy, discipline and formation, the worker substitutes mojo as the fuel for work. This requires constant attention to the presence of God, as the great engineer of work, Brother Lawrence demonstrated.

Nothing but laziness

I had a dream last night that we were moving (that in itself is a recurring nightmare), and there was so much left to load and pack and the bus and trailer was already full. I wasn't really participating in the action of my dream anymore, I was overwhelmed, unmotivated and lethargic. That is just how I feel today. I noted last night my lack of drive to do my homework. I seem to be acting more like I did my first years in college or in high school when I didn't care if I did any homework. Alas could I really revert to that?

I feel like I am falling behind and hope is lost for a good performance. Perhaps I need a break.