Storytelling requires great care and integrity. We talk about telling stories with kindness, authenticity, and a love for God and others.
BAFTA-nominated narrative director and game developer Xalavier Nelson, Jr., discusses how video games can connect us to...
You know that time is running out to do that thing you’re supposed to do. You should have started it yesterday. You...
Text Suggestions Isaiah 55:6-9 8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my...
Entrepreneur says work would be too hard if he didn't see it intrinsically as an act of worship.
This is an excerpt from Creation and New Creation by Theology of Work Project Biblical Studies Editor Sean McDonough. Notes have been omitted. This excerpt originally appeared in the Oikonomia Network March 201...
The inventor of the Pack-n-Play, Nate Saint, rose in his family's business from janitor to executive leadership. Saint is named after his...
Why do we create art? Why do we purchase music, paintings, or novels? It's because, deep down, we believe that art matters...
Genesis 2:19-20a Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and...
Technology is ever present in our work today. This week, our writers reflect on the interaction between the people God made and...
The word “creativity” probably makes us think of artists starving in attics, singers selling million-dollar records, or hushed trips through museums. But...
Movie screens, TV screens, and phone screens: from big-time Hollywood movies to streaming video, our modern lives...
Will there be technology in heaven? If so, what technology will we take to heaven? And what is technology, anyway? God placed...
We live in the age of the entrepreneur, the hipster, the startup, the app. Things new and digital often demand our attention...
So many times, our attempts at making resolutions have their roots in a belief that the person God created us to be...
Never forget that your story does not begin with you. What begins with you is every new opportunity to answer.
Peeling back the layers of God exposes, more and more, our need for imaginative qualities and necessities of faith.
"... we can imagine with them a better life for all of us," writes Charity Singleton Craig.
I’m 41 years old, and I’m still afraid to jump off the cliff.
Our deepest yearnings cannot be fully expressed in words, so Christians must wholeheartedly embrace the arts.
When we use our bodies as instruments to express the beauty of God, that offering brings the gospel to life. It's art.
I leak art. As Emily Freeman says, "He comes into us, then comes out of us, in a million little ways."
Creativity doesn’t mean being perfect. It means being you.
Think you're not an artist? Think again. "We are all the creators of art because we have been created by the creator of art," writes blogger Renee Robinson. "We make art with our life."
Tammy Hendricksmeyer stood in front of a homeschool class and told them what she once needed to hear: "Don’t let fear keep you from doing what God has created you to do. Have...
Your art matters, which is just another way to say your soul matters.
Craig Detweiler takes us on a journey that unequivocally declares that Art Matters, from the Sundance Film Festival to Europe, from contemplating architecture and priceless artwork and then back into the cineplex. We...
Why do we create art? Why do we patronize the arts? Is it a waste of time and money?
God is the giver of the creative gift, and it was he who decided the world needs—can't do without—our unique contributions.
When God called me to step down from singing publically, I thought my days of song were over. Then God surprised me with a more intimate invitation.
Busy people with full-time occupations wrote many of the hymns we still sing today. Their work didn’t stunt their poetry.
In our day-to-day lives, we pile on layer after layer of things we can see, things we can touch, mistakenly thinking this...
“Imagination is key to the thriving God intends for us,” says international artist Makoto Fujimura. And he believes our faith will grow...
"God's simplicity reveals truth, while Satan's complexities hides lies," writes entrepreneur and author Kevin Cullis. Questions help us simplify--and ultimately, find our place in the Body of Christ.
Barb Knuckles reminds us that our God-crafted identity, flowing through our skills, becomes a kind of holy artistry, whether we're making art, planting a garden, or stocking shelves.
Beaver Nelson’s work challenges us—how do we answer the big questions of life and work?
Creativity means bringing all of ourselves to our work, to our relationships, and to our faith.
Dorington Little is the senior pastor of First Congregational Church of Hamilton on the north shore of Boston. In this sermon on...
Matt Damon plays the title role in the movie Good Will Hunting. At one point, Will's therapist challenges him to accept his math genius and use it. But Will resists. He says, "I...
Katherine Leary Alsdorf is co-author with Timothy Keller of Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work (Dutton, 2012). She came...
How can we, as Christians, produce art that speaks to more than our own subculture or marketing bracket?
Bruce's work is a conversation between faith and art, between the past and the present. He sees art as a bridge between eternal truth and contemporary experience, bringing the images of scripture...
When Jesus disturbed and penetrated the sand to heal the man born blind, he disturbed and penetrated the hearts of many who...
Few actors inhabit a character like Forest Whitaker. For his most recent film, Black Nativity, Whitaker drew...
My grandfather was a tall-tale of a man, one whose great appetites were matched only by his passion and wit. He was...
She is old now, and increasingly frail. Her hair is a beautiful shade of white and though her blue eyes are clouded...
...
Is Poetry at Work a life-changing book?
The name Bezalel is not a name that first comes to our mind when we think of biblical characters.
The burden a parent feels in naming their child floated to the top of our collective consciousness this last week, when the...
Gattaca, a movie with a title whose letters represent the four nucleotide bases of DNA, tells the story of two brothers determined...
We had talked about it for months: a new electronic publication for employees. Only two companies in...
During the years I was home schooling my children, I threatened to quit nearly every year during the month of March. After...
One morning on the way to work, I let my mind drift during the drive. When I arrived at the office, I...
I think art matters a great deal ... it's another way for us to tell our story. It's another way to communicate...
Last year, a friend of mine asked for advice. His organization was being relentlessly criticized on social media. Most of the criticisms were unfounded and easily answered—but there was one problem...
John Conklin has a passion for theology--and metalworking. ...
On Mondays in June we’ll be discussing Chip and Dan Heath’s latest book Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and...
If ever the world needed writers, artists, poets, and musicians, it is now. ...
Strength may win battles in the short term, but warmth can win minds...
The artistic work of a life, or the life of an artist, is about the doing of the work, the going of...
Hostile countries rattle their nuclear chains; super-storms rage on the coasts, overseas, and in the Midwest. World economies collapse, and prophets cry...
Laity Lodge, a sister program under the Foundations for Laity Renewal umbrella, is a contemplative retreat center on the Frio River. Recently, they created a video featuring stellar musicians...
Greg Wright, who is the managing editor of Hollywood Jesus explores Christians who work in the movie industry. He talks about the...
I’m not a naturally creative person. I don’t paint. I don’t sing. I don’t sculpt. ...
Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home is not far from my grandmother’s house in Southern Indiana. I spent most of my summers with her...
“Okay, Thursday night. Nine-thirty, eastern standard time.” ...
Editor's Note: Each year, Laity Lodge hosts a writer's retreat. In 2012 speakers included Jeffrey Overstreet, John Medina, Julia Kasdorf, John Wilson...
"When’s the last time you were surrounded by a silence uninterrupted by manmade noise?" Michelle DeRusha asks that question from the Frio River canyon, during a recent trip to Laity Lodge. Michelle...
Each year, Laity Lodge welcomes writers to rock in chairs above the Frio, wander limestone trails, breathe deep and exhale full, and saturate our hearts in the gift of friendship. It's really...
So here is the simple truth of it: Dale Bruner’s Bible is a thing of great beauty. Its beauty comes from the slow and faithful work of a treasured scholar of our faith...
(Minor spoiler alert) ...
Editor's Note: Each year, Laity Lodge hosts a writer's retreat. The retreat provides a safe and intimate environment for serious dialogue about the craft of writing and the writing life, and a chance...
I went to Laity Lodge on June 7th, hoping that if I remained open and worked hard at listening, I might hear from God. What follows are excerpts from the journal I kept...
Editor's Note: On Fridays we're hosting a series called Everything Matters, where guests share why the work of their particular vocational fields...
A common test for creativity is the nine dot test. Examine the nine dots. Can you connect all the dots with only three straight lines that are continuous? In other words, can you...
"To me, the win is that every church would have someone whose sole focus is vocation."
The Laity Lodge Pilgrim is going back to Laity Lodge to find the naked tennis ball he wrote about a few weeks ago. He has asked us for suggestions about what to do...
I needed to see my work with a craftsman's eye if I was to turn the corner into the second half of my life.
I walked into the classroom. No books on the shelves. Linoleum floor, cracked. No area rugs. Crayons, paper, glue, scissors, blocks? Nope. Well, at least there were desks and a blackboard. ...
I spent several days last week surrounded by writers, artists, musicians and poets. It was the Writer’s Retreat at Laity Lodge, in Texas, my second year attending. This is a stark contrast from...
Figuring out how to integrate our faith with our work is a primary interest for the High Calling community.
It still feels like a risk—this keeping of the journal. I started keeping the secret words in the fifth grade and when...
With imagination, the impossible becomes possible. The unseen becomes real. With imagination we are able to see the numinous in the ordinary.
In her post "Crammed with Heaven," new member Bristol Huffman writes about pausing to revel in beauty, and how a Psalm burst forth when she did. (Always carry a pencil and paper!)
This is your day to say, "If poetry is good for business, then poetry is good for me."
It is always useful to discuss your writing blocks with your children. They know how to knock down, restack, find a new...
For the last several weeks, we have been pleased to partner with the Englewood Review of Books to bring you some fine...
Last year at SXSW Interactive, I was listening to some of my favorite social media gurus share stories of their technical success. The guys from CommonCraft were there, for instance, some of the...
The editorial staff here at TheHighCalling.org often asks me, “Where are we headed next? What are our goals?” I usually reply, “World...
Thanks to so many people who took up our Christmas in Verse invitation, posting something small to capture the "big things of Christmas." I did not have room for all I would have...
This morning I told Michelle DeRusha I was glad she included the Stargazer lilies in her post. Their presence communicated something poignant and deep about her wider experience of grief and loss. ...
I was sitting near the window-seat at a small inn outside of Pittsburgh. The sun was shining on antique floor boards, white lace curtains, and the deep, deep snow outside the door. I'd just...
I was going to write about the Sears catalog. Or maybe it was J.C. Penny's. When I was a kid, I studied the Holiday Catalog for a whole month before Christmas. Circling, tabbing...
She had me with the story of the pink dress. The pink dress for a child she had never met—a child she had prayed for, dreamed for, and wondered about. A child named...
If I told you I read a book about Wilbur and Orville Wright and then built a new kind of flying machine, would you believe me? Would you go flying with me? Probably...
Bad Blake is my favorite Hollywood pilgrim of 2010. When I first met him through a RedBox-acquired DVD of Crazy Heart, I didn’t see a pilgrim at all. Blake just smoked, chased and...
I sit in the car, waiting for my girls. They're practicing for an October production of the opera Tosca. The sun is warm on my knee and crickets trill in nearby woods. I...
The words of my youth were simple words. They were good words, functional words, words with concrete meaning. Even the bedtime stories my mother told us had an obvious purpose. ...
This morning I sat out back and read the final chapters of The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life. My son joined me on the deck with his...
I thought about Mary Ainsworth when I read Julia Cameron’s chapter on Roots in The Right to Write this week. ...
I drive with the windows down and the air conditioning on. The sun burns through the windshield but it is not enough to be cool--I must let the breeze ripple my hair, feel...
Harold Sikkema is a recent honors graduate of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. He met L.L. Barkat...
There is a season for love and birth and death and creativity. You know when the season has come, but you could never have predicted it.
May we "play skillfully" at work, in our communities, as we serve at church, in our families, and in every other facet...
In one of his most loved poems, Robert Frost describes a solitary workman raking a field who comes upon a tuft of flowers spared earlier in the morning by the mower. The discovery...
The nomadic Israelites worshiped God in a tent—of gold, silver, bronze, stone, fine woods, and leathers. To create the tent and its lavish furnishings, God appointed Bezalel—a skilled craftsman...
Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to create media that kept kids asking the big questions, while it kept...
"Set your seal upon this rebel girl," ...
A Conversation in Two Acts
The poet John Keats thought he was a failure. A trained hospital worker, he still couldn't cure his brother's tuberculosis. After his brother died, Keats diagnosed himself with the same disease....
I envied my friend's job: five times a week he types out a column for a big city newspaper, poking fun at local politicians and red tape . . . and gets paid...
Anne Lamott is a brilliant writer and teacher who tells her students to tackle big jobs "bird by bird" . . . and then she explains. Thirty years ago, when her older brother...
"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound"—so begins one of the world's best-loved hymns. The song-writer's story is also amazing. In the mid-1700s, John Newton was an embittered man and captain of a...
Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, had a customer who constantly tore the pockets of his pants. Davis tried a creative solution. He placed rivets on the corners of the pockets—and also at...
(with adaptation of Emil Nolde's Dance around the Golden Calf, has 12 figurines) 2001 installed, app. 12" x 22" x 12" glazed porcelain with gold. For more detail, visit www.gingergeyer.com. Everything was under...
Why are we called to "be fruitful and multiply"?
God sets limits to our work. It's up to us to discern those limits and live within them.
Genesis 4 details the first murder when Cain kills his brother Abel in a fit of angry jealousy. Both brothers bring the fruit of their work as offerings to God. Cain is a...
First of all, God’s mission is to inspire people to work with the materials he provides to bring forth new and good...
In the biblical narrative God creates everything for his glory and honor (Colossians 1:16, Revelation 4:11). The foundations of finance—like all of...
Stewardship is the fulfillment of God’s mandate to fill the earth, subdue (or govern) it, work it, and care for it (Genesis...
God created risk, in that we do not know what the future holds (Ecclesiastes 8:7). But God created us with an ability...
By Rev’d Dr. Kenneth J. Barnes, Dean of the Marketplace Institute, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia In his collected papers entitled, Reflections on...
Classroom activities to show kids what it means to partner with God.
