Fearlessly CourageousDesk of Dennis Piller2 2 2023
Your career is up here, and everything else is down there. “Seeds”
The New York Times and Atlantic writer David Brooks has distinguished between what he calls “résumé virtues” and “eulogy virtues.” Résumé virtues are what people bring to the marketplace: Are they clever, devoted, and ambitious employees? Eulogy virtues are what they bring to relationships not governed by the market: Are they kind, honest, and faithful partners and friends?He said Americans should prioritize eulogy virtues. But by our own testimony, we strongly prefer résumé virtues for ourselves and especially for our children. This year, Pew Research Center asked American parents: What accomplishments or values are most important for your children as they become adults? Nearly nine in 10 parents named financial security or “jobs or careers [our children] enjoy” as their top value. That was four times more than the share of parents who said it was important for their children to get married or have children; it was even significantly higher than the percentage of parents who said it’s extremely important for their kids to be “honest,” “ethical,” “ambitious,” or “accepting of people “ Are you listening? This is not fake news.
So what seeds are we planting? The cyclone is spinning powerfully sucking everything within its reach and literally destroying everything in its path. In real life, the effect is more subtle. It happens over the months and years of our children seeing their greatest life examples…their parents…set the example of order. Planting seeds and watering them by their intentions or their absence. Your career is up here, and everything else is down there. “Seeds”
Commentators sometimes blame a technological cocktail of smartphone use and social media for the psychological anguish of American youth. But perhaps a latent variable is the reverberation of workism in the next generation. These surveys suggest that everything society represents “work” should be considered bigger than —family, faith, love, relationships, ethics, and kindness— and so resume virtues become our secondary objective.Americans, during a time of declining religiosity, seemed to be turning to their careers to fill the spiritual vacuum at the center of their life. Their desk has become their altar. OUCH! If you are not intentionally fighting that fight. That is you. Maybe you are at the beginner stage. Perhaps your earlier on in the siphon whirlpool of making your desk or career your altar by practice. Probably not on purpose but succumbing to the pressures of the world sucking you in. And our children don’t miss a beat. They see it all. Those seeds we planted, for maybe just a little while as you get yourself out of some hole, doesn’t really stop and those seeds had children and multiply in our kids. If the smartphone and social media madness is not enough for them to go partially nuts or overpowered by anxiousness and uncertainty…. Our seeds may just be the final straw to grow another generation of
“Your career is up here, and everything else is down there syndrome!. “Seeds of what?”
Planting seeds of faith perpetuates the growth of God's kingdom, as people become followers of Jesus. It perpetuates lifestyles that honor and obey God. It perpetuates goodness, kindness, and love in our homes, our neighborhoods, and the world.
SOWING seeds is an important thing in the life of believers. You know that. Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” If you are believing for your children to know God beyond the God on Sunday mornings, you must be intentional in what you are seeding, whether it be without thinking…without meaning to do harm… because even that…will grow a crop and it will be so overcome by the weeds of the land. They will choke out anything good because we did not water the seeds of life so it could grow some roots of faith and relationship to stay the course to Christ. We did not water them with God’s word and nurture within them a relationship with Jesus. The same message goes for us. So which is it for you? “Your career is up here, and everything else is down there syndrome! Which one are you? Choose you this day who you will serve! Josh 24:15 “Seeds of what?”
Micah Tyler Differenthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUT4trsrBCw&list=PLCd-wh1hNZpQRQZ73gnTCeUYflnkLMF_S&index=3 Excerpts are taken from Derek Thomson’s “Work in Progress”
