Tyler talks.
One month ago I stood in front of the Thursday Night crowd at Unterwegs to talk about the Good Samaritan and the practical side of all that. Something that I do love about Jesus as a religious figure is that he spent his time as a teacher of how to live life to it’s fullest within the context of faith. If God is the creator of life, Jesus is the user’s guide. Kind of like Nintendo Power.
This month I’m talking about work, your job, and how that figures into your identity. Jesus offers a lot of advice, but career advice isn’t really among the wise words he offered. Let’s see…
- Jesus did an internship under his step father as a carpenter, then picked up and left home to become a teacher of religion. When he came back to his home town to ply his trade, his own people tried to kill him.
- Jesus picked for his disciples some of the worst fishermen in the Bible. Those guys didn’t catch a single fish unless he helped them out with a miracle. That’s right – it took a miracle for those career so-called “fishermen” to actually catch a fish.
Thousands of people came to Jesus with life problems and crises – surely what do to with oneself career-wise was among those. It had to have come up at least once. Would it really have been too much for Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John to write in an extra verse or two to that effect? My guess: “And Jesus said to the young man: ‘I don’t recommend carpentry.‘”