work

We are currently preparing a message from the Transformation Journal on Jesus and Work. This has struck home for me this week on two fronts:

1) I read a blog entry - volunteer webmasters should quit. Well this is what I do, so I was curious and there are definitely some valid points. I feel blessed that I am able to do as much volunteering as I do and I enjoy the "work", but maybe because I came from the corporate world, it is sometimes difficult to feel like I'm doing legitimate work - I really don't like getting asked what I do for a living. I also feel like I walk a fine line with the level of empowerment I'm given or perceive that I have to make decisions. I have decided to start tracking my hours and invoicing the church, so we all have an idea of what I'm contributing.

2) I just started reading Father Joe based on comments I read at Theocentric. Up to page 53 and so far so good. Here's a quote related to work:

But work in the Benedictine tradition, enjoyable or not, exalted or humble, is in no conflict with the spiritual. Indeed, it too is prayer, a principle best expressed in the classic Benedictine dictum Laborare est orare - "To work is to pray." There is no separation between work in the sense of secular, non-spiritual toil and the spiritual in the sense of uplifting relief from its tedium. Benedictines were the first people in history to claim that work is sacred.

Source: Father Joe by Tony Hendra, p. 45.