Issue 452
It’s probably the most quoted and well known piece of Shakespeare. “To be, or not to be”. Hamlet’s question touches on a central part of being human. If it’s central to humanity it’s also central to your work.
Less well known, but containing similar ideas, is the phrase “existential angst”. It has to do with the worry you carry your soul concerning your own survival.
If this is all too ethereal for you, then let me spell it out. Are you going to make it? Will your business go bust? Will you have a job twelve months from now? Will you live for another ten years? Will you be, or not be?
The truth is, that while you go about your everyday business, you carry your level of worry about your survival. You can’t completely forget it, but you probably don’t dwell on it continuously.
There is another subtle subtext to your day. Solomon spoke of God planting eternity in your heart. There is something inside of you which longs for that which you cannot see, a deeper meaning, for profound satisfaction.
So every so often your mortality pops into your head. Occasionally you wonder if what you are doing is of any lasting value and whether it will last at all.
You gaze past your screen into the distance or past the person you are talking with at an unfocused point, pensive about the bigger pictures of life (and death).
When your budgets are tight or your market is slow, your job is insecure, your health is a challenge, your relationships are in flux these thoughts bubble up. ‘What’s the point, will it last, will I make it?’ replace ‘where is the coffee, can you reboot your machine or where is the rest-room?’
These are your forevers. These are the frameworks in which you operate. These are the puzzles of love, work and the spirit arriving in the night spilling over into your working day.
These are also the spaces where time and eternity meet, leading, if you listen carefully, to a portal, a break in the continuum where a baby lies in an outhouse, inside time but from sometime other. He has come to save your forevers. He has come to settle the question of will you make it, will you survive – forever. He has come to tell you that you can have meaning – forever. He has brought bread and water that will satisfy your thirst – forever. He brings an invitation to a party that will last – forever.
At the end of his tiny arms is a handshake which will seal your security in the service of the best household – forever.
He has come to calm your nerve, steady your walk, strengthen your soul, feed your spirit and dissolve your fear – forever.
This is a child of hope, horizons and heaven come to save you in time and out of it. No longer need trouble you, no longer. Your life is set in the ring of eternity like a diamond in gold. Except these jewels are indestructible.
He has not come to save you from questions but to introduce you to pathways – if you walk with Him He will save your forevers and let you rest easy – especially when today is tough. (Next week – Your Today’s).
Matthew 1:18-21
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
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Work well
Geoff Shattock
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