“Can Day-to-Day Work Be Holy?” - Norm Goodyear

In this article for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Marilynne Robinson writes, "All we really know about what we are is what we do." Our lives are shaped by the small choices we make each day, far more than by any single effort of will. Some of our most sacred experiences happen, not as mountaintop flashes of inspiration, but in the slow, habitual practices that shape our everyday lives—they come upon us more like a sunrise than a sudden explosion.

This means that sometimes we have to be faithful in the work we have been given, even when we don't understand God's purpose. As Norm points out, we may be carrying something priceless without even realizing it!

Want to hear more? You can find the rest of our conversation with Norm over at the High Calling YouTube Channel.

Transcript: Well, the Kohathites were part of the Levite tribe, and they had a job. Everybody had jobs to do, but when God had the fire in the sky and said, "It's time for us to go," then they took the tabernacle down, and they wrapped everything up. The Kohathites then—once everything is taken down—they pick up specifically the holy things and they carry them. They don't what's in there, but they know it's something holy—maybe something from the Holy of Holies—but they're carrying it. I kind of think about that in relation to what I do. I carry cargo; I don't know what's back there. Maybe there's a load of gold . . . maybe just mundane contracts. I don't know, and I don't know what God has planned for those things. If we treat our jobs like that—that we don't know what we're doing really—but there's something holy about it and let's just do it to the best of our ability. It's my job to carry it and to take it where it's supposed to go . . . and so I do. I love that story.