work Archives - Keith Shields

Of Bees and Workers

Canadian and American culture tends toward “doing” on the “doing/being continuum.” When things get tough, the tough get going. When a crisis comes along and we need to pivot, we take it in stride and work a little harder to accomplish the things that must be done, and the objectives we want to accomplish. On…

Grace and Effort

As I prepare a sermon for this Sunday on New Wine, I know I need to meditate upon this quote by Dallas Willard. “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins…

Of Cats and Bells

Today, I saw a house-cat hunting a squirrel. The cat crept up on the unsuspecting creature, carefully trying to get within range of a giant leap and an unleashing of claws and teeth. One could see thousands of years of instincts and intuition, passed down from ancient ancestors, coiled up in the body of this…

Dirty Jobs and Dirty Truth

Lately, I have been thinking much about my career journey and how it relates to the advice I have given others. I have been one of those fathers who told his daughters to “follow your passions and get good at what you like to do. Eventually, someone will pay you to do those things at…

Earning and Effort

Some of the most challenging passages in the New Testament are those related to “works” versus “grace.” Theologians have struggled to understand, and argued over, the meaning of these verses for centuries; and this debate is at the root of the greatest divides in all of Christianity. The spectrum of “divine predestination” on one side…

There is Nothing to Writing

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” – Ernest Hemingway I have not yet written a book, but I have written 600 blogs since January of 2009, and each time I sit down to write I am aware I am revealing a portion of myself. The…

Lewis, Tash, Aslan, and Emeth

Many of us love the writings of C.S. Lewis, not because they tickle our ears with things we want to hear; but precisely because they challenge us with a new way of hearing the old message of the Gospel of Jesus. When we think we have our theology and practice all worked out, it is…

Vocation

I, like many people in January, find that there is much work to be done and I become quite busy. It is certainly a fitting time to consider what we are accomplishing as we work at our jobs, volunteer with non-profit organizations, and serve at our churches. In the midst of my busyness I will…

Resurrection

“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice,…

Who Am I?

I used to spend a lot of time wishing I had someone else’s life. I used to dream of being a rock-star, a singer songwriter, an astronaut, a theologian, the pastor of a mega-church, a scientist, a leader of leaders, an author, a pastor of pastors, a teacher, an academic, a denominational executive, an…