Live & Labor

Many of you have been receiving this newsletter for a few weeks but  for some of you, this is brand new.  Let me take this moment to say, Welcome to Live & Labor.  

I have been fortunate to speak across the country to a lot of different people over the past few years.  I’ve found myself in places like Grand Forks, ND, Anderson, ID, and my beloved Brooklyn.  Speaking with people across every age group possible, I have found that we are all asking the same question: How should I live?  

My hope is to help us answer that question, but I want to answer it simply.  There are plenty of people writing about Christian living right now, but I have found that much of the discourse is too lofty.  We are getting 30,000ft views when what most of us need is an answer that’s applicable to us on the ground.  We want practical words that speak to our present situation, in plain terms.

I think most Christians truly desire to follow Jesus, and we are all trying to figure out what that looks like in everyday life.  I will not pretend to have the definitive answer to the question of how that plays out, but I do think that I can offer insight.  Some of what I say will hit home for you, but some of this will not be applicable.  My advice is to follow Paul’s words in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 “Test everything, hold fast to what is good.”

My hope is to help you explore the answer to this question we are all wrestling with: how should I live?  I plan to write about a variety of questions: : what does it mean to be a Christian in the workplace? What are my duties to my neighbor?  How does the Christian life apply to friendship, love, leadership, finances, and the rest of life?  

At the end of the day, this is an exploration of wise living.  A commentary on Proverbs put it like this:

“There is something about wisdom which is mysterious.  She does not tell us all the answers.  She invites us to consider certain situations she places before us in word pictures, and says to us: ‘is this not how things are?  If this is how the world is, how should you live now?”

This is the question that many of us are eagerly trying to answer.  We live in uncertain times, but it can be argued that we have always lived in uncertain times.  The trials of life are guaranteed to hit all of us, so we must know how to live amidst uncertainty.  Solomon’s words come to mind in Ecclesiastes 7:14: “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other.”

As we live and labor, the goal is to live wisely whether the day is one of joy or one of sorrow.  Thank you for your time, ears, eyes, and attention.  May we Live and Labor well until the end.