Where Are You Finding Meaning in Your Work and Life This Week?
Blog / Produced by The High Calling
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" That's the question on the back of Nancy J. Nordenson's new book, Finding Livelihood: A Progress of Work and Leisure (Kalos Press, 2015). And it is one that has us excited here at The High Calling.
We mentioned this book on The High Calling several months ago in Laura Brown's article “The Best Books for Business: The Business of Work.” Many friends of The High Calling have already endorsed the book—Luci Shaw, Gregory Wolfe, Emilie Griffin, Leslie Leyland Fields, Byron Borger, and even our own editor Marcus Goodyear, who is featured this week on Nancy’s blog in a series that shines the light on all the book’s endorsers.
Here’s what Marcus had to say about the book: “Finding Livelihood is a breath of radical honesty for the workaday Christian. Nancy Nordenson does not fear the long dark night shift of the soul, but neither does she accept it. Her real world stories of people at work inspire and challenge at every turn." Byron Borger, owner of Hearts & Minds Books, called it “a major, significant work,” one that “takes the ‘faith and work’ conversation in new directions.”
Since Finding Livelihood is a book that may be of interest to many readers of The High Calling, we’re giving away a couple copies to readers who express interest by engaging with us here around the topic of "livelihood."
Nordenson writes,
I want to find God at work in me and through me. I want livelihood.
Livelihood: the word gathers up and bundles together the simultaneous longings for meaning, satisfaction, and provision. In the fullest sense of the word, livelihood means the way of one's life; it means the sustenance to make that way possible; it means both body and soul are fully alive thanks to what has been earned or received by grace. On one level we make our livelihood; on another level we keep our eyes open and find it.
...This book admits that work, even good work for which we are grateful and love, has a shadow side. It is not about disengaging from unsatisfying work or finding a new job. Instead, this book is about developing openness to meaning and beholding meaning where you find it.
How about you? Where are you finding meaning in your life and work this week? Or better yet, what do you want to be when you grow up?
Let us know in the comments below for a chance to receive a free copy of Nancy Nordenson's Finding Livelihood.
