“A spirituality of work is based on a heightened sense of sacramentality, of the idea that everything that is, is holy and that our hands consecrate it to the service of God. When we grow radishes in a small container in a city apartment, we participate in creation. We sustain the globe. When we sweep the street in front of a house in the dirtiest city in the country, we bring new order to the universe. We tidy the Garden of Eden. We make God’s world new again. When we repair what has been broken or paint what is old or give away what we have earned that is above and beyond our own sustenance, we stoop down and scoop up the earth and breathe into it new life again, as God did one morning in time only to watch it unfold and unfold and unfold through the ages.”
Yesterday I spent the day on a demolition job. I tore off an old and poorly built lean-to on our old barn. It had become an eye-sore and more so with our new barn standing so close by. It took me the better part of the day, four litres of ice water, my Ford Ranger, and a sturdy crow bar to complete the task. It felt somehow sacramental. Even the humble little barn that remains looks better this morning.