The Word Worker

Tag: Purpose

  • Stewards and Kings

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    In Tolkien’s famous trilogy, the kingdom of Gondor was ruled by kings who carried elven blood in their veins and lived by a sense of honor stemming from the Valar themselves. These kings ruled from a great throne while their most trusted advisors sat in stewardship below. When Isildur failed and left Gondor kingless, the…

  • The Significance of a Baby

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    In a tiny, insignificant town a baby was born. His first cries were drowned by the loving and cackling of farm animals and by the busy merriment of hostel guests just the other side of the wall. His young mother wrapped his flailing arms in linen strips stored nearby for the care of newborn lambs,…

  • The Round Peg in a Square Hole: What is Normal?

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    Most of us played with shape sorters as children. As part of learning the different shapes and creating the proper connections, we tried fitting shapes into holes they didn’t match. Some of those mismatches didn’t fit at all; the shape simply would not pass through the hole. The corners of a square, for example, will…

  • More

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    In an extraordinary act of self-surrender, the Creator and Lord of galaxies and chromosomes bound Himself within the limits of the Earth He formed between His fingers. His tangible presence in our sphere of perception carried the culmination of thousands of years of guidance, the ultimate demonstration that could be absorbed in every physical sensory…

  • Work

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    It’s a bad word in our society, a lightning rod that attracts every social argument imaginable. Manual laborers view with contempt those who work with their minds, considering them lazy and out of touch with reality. Those in intellectually focused professions  look down on manual laborers, certain that no one with ambition would waste time…

  • The Choice of a Servant

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    In the law given at Mt. Sinai, God set economic rules for physical Israel to follow. These rules included a form of servitude designed to pay off a debt. This servitude was completely voluntary, and when the time allotted for the debt had expired, the individual returned to full freedom. On occasion, however, the servant…

  • Blame Culture

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    From the very beginning of the world, when Adam and Eve tried to deflect responsibility for their rebellion, humans have relied upon blame culture. Anything wrong is always someone or something else’s fault. Children do it to get out of trouble. Adults do it to avoid dealing with problems. Each generation blames whatever is unfamiliar…

  • Opportunity and Prejudice

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    Recently I posted a series of questions on social media. I wanted, and received, feedback revealing how we as a society understand certain concepts that are central to a civilization. Need, work, and identity are necessary in order for a culture to thrive, but perception of what constitutes those things varies widely. When those varying…

  • Hard

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    We like to think that hard only happens in stories, that hard is a thing of the past. But it isn’t. We like to think that the ultimate achievement would be to eradicate hard from our memory. But it wouldn’t. A young woman breathes deeply through the pain of her muscles contracting. Her skin stretches…

  • Different Holes

    —

    by

    wordworkerrussell
    in ,

    Most babies and toddlers are given toys involving various shapes that fit in specific holes. The purpose, of course, is to develop the reasoning skills to match like items. Usually young children are fascinated by this physical, concrete challenge and will try and try again until they master the toy. Unfortunately, we do not often…