Greg Gast
God-Designed Work

Did you realize that God commands us to work and he is even specific about the amount of time? “Remember the Sabbath day, and keep in holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work.  But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God: you shall not do any work.” […]

Brian Gray
Three Prayers for Work

Need to make it through a long work day? Or week? Take a moment, print out these prayers, and offer them to Christ, the Savior and Sustainer of all life. The first is written by Graham Wells via The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation & Culture: Dear God, you provide for us in all ways, […]

Jeff Haanen
How To Choose a Career: Advice From a Puritan Pastor

“What am I called to?” That’s the question it seems most of us are asking. My friend Nathan is a pastor of young adults, and without a doubt, nearly everybody he knows hates their jobs. The question “What am I called to?” is often followed by “It can’t be this!”The fact that 70% of Americans […]

Jeff Haanen
What’s the Purpose of Business?

Dorothy Sayers can sure pack a punch.  After the second world war, in a reflection on how to rebuild the economy she wrote: “But what are we to say about a civilization which employs so many of its workers in doing work which has no worth at all, work which no living man with a […]

Jeff Haanen
Do You Have a Job or a Profession?

The difference between the two isn’t about white collar versus blue collar, salary versus hourly wages, or masters degree versus high school diploma. It isn’t even necessarily about enjoying your work. The key is a commitment to the moral purpose of our work – doing our work the way it ought to be done. We […]

Bob Cutillo
Living Well in the Face of Death

When people of faith are faced with life and death decisions, does what they believe make a difference? One would like to think so. Yet a 2009 study of patients with advanced metastatic cancer in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests otherwise. Christians at the end of life seemed as a fearful of […]

Jeff Haanen
What Can the Bible Contribute to Our Understanding of Technology?

John Dyer joined DIFW for the Faith & Technology Forum in 2013. Ahead of the event, I did a brief Skype interview with John on his book From the Garden to the City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology. Even though I struggled to get the Skype recorder working (I apologize for the slow frame […]

David Hyams
Exposing the Idol of “Tough Guy” Lawyering

Whether from law school, pop culture, or the actual practice, we learn that lawyers are tough, confident, and strong. We are “sharks,” the “hired guns” who will destroy the adversary, get the deal done, make stuff happen. With one dial of the phone, click of the mouse, or swipe on a screen, we can assert […]

Chris Horst
“I Wish My Work Mattered”

“I just wish I did work that mattered as much as your work does.” I was wrapping up lunch with a new friend when he dropped this line. His comment didn’t catch me off-guard. Frankly, it didn’t surprise me at all. I hear this comment—and close iterations of it—a lot. And I’m really tired of […]

Jeff Haanen
10 Questions We Should Ask About Technology (Pt 2)

What are the stories we tell about technology and even, What is technology? Here’s a few more questions to consider: 5.      What is the value-system embedded in particular kinds of technology? Twitter conditions us to consume small bits of information – the quick soundbite reigns. Microwaves – and the inglorious TV dinner – gives us […]

Jeff Haanen
10 Questions We Should Ask About Technology (Pt. 1)

Yellow light. It’s a faithful way to start thinking about technology.  Whereas a green light would tell us to “go” and adopt any and every new tool and device the market offers, and a red light would mean rejecting new technologies outright as evil or at least corrupting to the way “things should be,” a […]

Illumination at Laity Lodge

By Patton Dodd Last spring, I attended a gathering at Laity Lodge, a retreat center nestled into the Frio River-bottomed canyon in the Hill Country of Texas. The retreat’s intent was to gather workers from various fields—academia, journalism, the arts, and “business,” though of course it’s all business—to discuss the intersection of faith and work. […]