Woodworking & Baseball

Our church, Neighborhood Church renovated an old dilapidated workshop and turned it into an artisan space where kids learn job-transferable skills like woodworking.  My kids, though little, have loved spending time in the workshop building things.  They've built toys (for play) and tools (for work) and have learned how to use all the hand tools and some of the power tools safely. 

On this occasion, all work stopped and the boys just wanted to watch something while Joe worked.  I suppose that's OK. We grabbed their car seats from the car and put on a movie.  They listed to Dora the Explorer amidst the sounds of band saws, scroll saws, and miter saws.  

One of the things we appreciate about our kids is that they KNOW how to work.   Whether they are in the workshop or on the baseball field...they KNOW how to start a job and finish it...to do it with passion and intensity.  It doesn't matter if its work or play...we have taught them how to put the same intensity into it.  It's a big value in our family.  Work and play are IMPORTANT.  When Josiah plays baseball he plays with all his heart.  When Noah works in the workshop....he builds with all his heart and uses all his imagination. 

We love that about our kids.

Work and play...both important...and both deserve our best effort.

These are good days

Follow @joeandheidi

Vocation and Work

Two blogs I read (The Ducklows and Seth Godin) had similar ideas in them this morning.....so I'll put them both together, here.

From the Ducklows....

Frederick Buechner writes: “It comes from the Latin vocare, to call, and means the work a person is called to by God. There are all different kinds of voices calling you to all different kinds of work, and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-Interest. By and large a good rule for finding out is this: The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work (a) that you need most to do and (b) that the world most needs to have done. If you really get a kick out of your work, you’ve presumably met requirement (a), but if your work is writing cigarette ads, the chances are you’ve missed requirement (b), on the other hand, if your work is being a doctor in a leper colony, you have probably met requirement (b), but if most of the time you’re bored and depressed by it, the chances are you have not only bypassed (a), but probably aren’t helping your patients much either. Neither the hair shirt nor the soft berth will do. The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” (Frederick Buechner, from his book, “Wishful Thinking”)

and from Seth....

An idea turns into a meeting and then it turns into a project. People get brought along, there's free donuts, there's a whiteboard and even a conference call.

It feels like you're doing the work, but at some point, hopefully, someone asks, "what's the point of this?"

Is it worth doing?

Compared to everything else we could be investing (don't say 'spending') our time on, is this the scariest, most likely to pay off, most important or the best long-term endeavor?

Or are we just doing it because no one had the guts along the way to say STOP.

Are you doing work worth doing, or are you just doing your job?