Make Good Tables

“The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables. Church by all means, and decent forms of amusement, certainly—but what use is all that if in the very center of his life and occupation he is insulting God with bad carpentry? No crooked table legs or ill-fitting drawers ever came out of the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth. Nor, if they did, could anyone believe that they were made by the same hand that made Heaven and earth.” 

-Dorothy L. Sayers

I know personally I sometimes make being a Christian very difficult – mainly because I make it difficult. I love being reminded of simpler expectations like this one. Nobody wants to listen to your story because you go to church on Sundays. But to shine the the light of Jesus in your work…phew, that’s something unique. To exude hope instead of cynicism, to encourage instead of demean, to be honest and forthright instead of engaging in politics and gatekeeping – all of these will display the love of Christ way more than just being “a good boy and good girl.”

Incidentally; there’s one class of people that I find over and over again exemplify just this, no matter what field I find them in. Hardest working people I’ve ever encountered.

Farmers.