Vocation

Review: Hints of Hope

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Cover image of "Hints of Hope" by Steven Garber

Hints of Hope

Hints of Hope, Steven Garber, foreword by Makoto Fujimura. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9798893480344) 2026.

Summary: How we might live with hope in a beautiful but broken world where even our best efforts realize only proximately our ideals.

As followers of Christ, we speak of our hope in Christ, of new life in a renewed creation. But that seems far away for many of us. In the lives we live now, we struggle with the disparity between the vision toward which we live and the present realities of living in a beautiful but broken world as beautiful but broken people. Whether we look at our marriages, our parenting, our work, our civic engagement, we find much that is good. And yet….

That “and yet” is what Steve Garber calls the proximate. Whatever good we experience in the various arenas of our lives pales before what we know things could be. Often, life is marked with failure and grief as well as joy and achievement. One of the big questions is how we might continue to live with hope and make our peace with the proximate. It is to this that Garber devotes the essays that make up this book. In the Introduction, he likens our lives to the seashells we find along a beach–all beautiful, but broken, all glorious ruins–and all seeking to make sense of our reason for being. Then in the following eight essays, he will reflect further, often coming back to the affections, the love on which our lives turn.

Garber begins with his own story, and that of his father, a plant researcher who focused on growing good, disease resistant cotton. And much good cotton was grown, yet plant diseases persist to this day. The proximate. Then Garber turns to travels through Slovakia, the writing of Vaclav Havel, and Jozef Luptak, who convened a society-wide music festival called Konvergencie. It represented an effort to curate the best of Slovak culture while many remained indifferent. The proximate. Finally, he turns to the Lord of the Rings and the amazing quest of Frodo and Sam, destroying the Ring of Power, witnessing the coronation of Aragorn, and cleansing the Shire. And yet there were wounds that only a journey to the Western lands could heal.

That’s one chapter, weaving several stories around the theme of “glimpses of hope.” Garber’s remaining chapters follow a similar pattern, mixing personal narrative, the stories of others, and reflections from literature around a theme. He weighs the question of telos, the end toward which we live, and how it shapes our praxis. In exploring our quest for meaning, he considers Douglas Copeland and his Life After God. Can we make sense of our lives apart from God?

Then follow several chapters on various aspects of what it is to love. He reflects on how, in Wendell Berry’s words, “it all turns on affection”–our families, our work, our economic life, our communal and political life. It is a question Augustine asks: “What do you love?” Then Garber goes on to consider how Hannah Arendt, Reinhold Niebuhr, Lesslie Newbigin, and Jean Bethke Elshtain answered the question. “Love in the Ruins” connects stories from around the world of those who loved amid the proximate. Finally, “A Long-loved Love” looks at love and the proximate in marriages, including Garber’s own.

The final chapters face both the wounds and scars we bear and our longing for something more. We follow Garber from Birmingham to Pittsburgh to the art studios of Makoto Fujimura, who demonstrates the art of kintsugi. Each story is one of fashioning beauty out of brokenness. Finally, he considers the something more for which we long. He tells an amazing story of the Tunyi family from Nagaland. This is a remote place bordering Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Myanmar. They are dedicated to cultivating the good for the sake of the kingdom. Their efforts range across education, healthcare, and politics, as signposts pointing to the something more. And to close the circle, Garber ends with Lewis and Tolkien.

Garber writes beautifully, evoking in the reader images, thoughts, and feelings as one reads. There is the ethos of Garber’s own life, and search for hope. Then we have the pathos of so many stories of those living hopefully while making peace with the proximate. Finally, there is also logos, as Garber in the company of great writers, invites us to consider our telos. Toward what end do we live and what do we love?

If I were to offer any critique, it would be that these reflections sometimes border on “stream of consciousness.” There are so many stories that sometimes, keeping track of Garber’s theme can be a challenge. It’s easy to get lost in his excellent prose and skilled storytelling!

So what this calls for is slow and attentive reading…and reflecting. But what that yields is so worth it. In a world that vacillates between unrealistic ideals and ideologies and deep disillusionment, living with hope in the proximate is good news. Garber sees beyond the “glittering images” to our beautiful and broken reality, and helps us live toward something more.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Working for Better

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Cover image of "Working for Better" by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

Working for Better

Working for Better, Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011263) 2025.

Summary: A data-driven approach to understanding the challenges of fostering faith at work identifying five key tensions.

Christians have been writing about faith in the marketplace for at least fifty years. Much of that writing has been informed both by theological convictions about the nature of work and workplace experience. Much of the latter is either testimonial or drawn from anecdotal evidence. Traditionally, much of this has focused on vocation, service, witness, and righteousness.

Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels are social scientists (at Rice University and Wheaton College, respectively). They have engaged in an extensive research project on faith at work. They surveyed 15,000 workers, interviewed 300 individuals, and worked with several focus groups. Out of this research they identified five tensions in the faith-at-work movement. In paired chapters, they discuss each tension, considering both traditional approaches and newer ways of engagement, based on their research. The five are:

Understanding of Work: While the focus has always been on all work being done in service to God, this is not always widely shared on the ground. They identify four dimensions of calling along axes of intrinsic-extrinsic and within the workplace-beyond the workplace.

Religious Discrimination and Accommodation: They trace the experience of both Christians and those of other faiths in this regard, noting where discrimination and lack of accommodation have occurred. At the same time, they recognize the opportunity for engagement in focusing on the protection of others and not only one’s own rights.

Focus on personal and systemic responsibility: Many Christians have focused, and rightly so, on personal ethics and discussed ways they faced challenges with immorality and ethical compromise. They also explore the opportunities for systemic engagement to address organizational change for ethical behavior for the common good.

Men and Women in the Workplace: They looked at different ways men and women express their faith and the different levels at which each reported unfair treatment in the workplace, including religious workplaces. They consider ways the church can support flourishing for both men and women as well as the support women may be given in terms of harassment and models and mentors.

Expressing Faith in the Workplace: They identify the many ways Christians express faith in the workplace. Given the growing presence of other faiths, they advocate a principled pluralism approach. This means respect for all while not muting the distinctiveness of any.

As the authors conclude, they discuss the practice of rest. What was surprising was the silence of their research results on the subject. They explore healthy rhythms of work and rest on a daily weekly, monthly and longer term basis. And they offer challenges for churches, workplace leaders and all workers.

Summing up, the things I liked the most about this book were its data-driven nature, listening to non-Christian voices, and the expansive vision they cast in each of the five tensions. They focus on moving beyond personal godliness and self-protection to constructive organizational engagement. They offer an attractive and compelling vision for the next season of faith at work.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Makers by Nature

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Cover image of "Makers by Nature" by Bruce Herman

Makers by Nature, Bruce Herman. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009802) 2025.

Summary: Letters to students, artists, and friends on calling, making, and process, with reproduced works by the author.

Bruce Herman taught studio art for four decades, setting up the art program at Gordon College. This allowed him time for work in his own studio, resulting in works exhibited throughout the world as well as in many private collections. In this work, presented as letters to students and friends in the art world, he share his insights on faith and art, how he has pursued his calling, and many of the issues facing artists.

Herman describes these as “imaginary” letters but they certainly have the feel of real correspondence including affirmation of specifics of an artist’s work, remembrances of time spent together, and even details regarding payment for a work. Each “chapter” consists of letters written to a particular artist, many of whom were former students. Each collection focuses around a particular aspect of making art. With each, Herman includes a reproduction of a work referenced in the correspondence.

Herman talks about artistic process, the mysterious gift of work and using one’s skills to serve that work. He explores issues of theology such as the rendering of glory in suffering, and the place of paradox in art. He describes his own unfolding sense of vocation and his decisive choice to not pursue the contemporary art scene to support a family and the gift of being able to teach and make art without financial stresses.

One of the most striking chapters was a discussion of “style” with “Angela.” He proposes that thinking too much about style is akin to thinking too much about walking or breathing. Rather, he writes:

“We need to fall in love with our subject matter, not our manner of execution or our own handwriting. The beautiful irony is that if we forget about ourselves and our style, we will discover a far greater love. The work will come into being and become a portal of meaning, and style will be a grace, not a possession.”

Throughout, in this sequence and elsewhere, the theme of “serving the work” recurs.

Most of all, Herman explores how his faith intersects with his artistic practice. Whether it is the grace of what is given that the artist serve or the offering up of one’s work as prayer. Then Herman also explores the rendering of religious events like the Annunciation and the incredibly difficult matter of visually rendering the “overshadowing” of the Virgin.

Finally, Herman writes to Jesus. Instead of saccharine praise, Herman expresses his discouragement with himself. The issue is sin and he laments his own “cussedness.” Yet in the end, he senses that weakness is the place of grace “and good fuel for art.

A wonderful bonus to this rich collection of personal communications is an appendix of artworks. They are a gift from former students presented on the occasion of his retirement. In sum, this book is a feast for eyes and heart. Especially, it is a gift to any engaged in creative making, from a wise maker devoted to the Master Maker.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Gutta Percha Willie

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Cover image of "Gutta Percha Willie" by George MacDonald

Gutta Percha Willie, George MacDonald. Rosetta Books (ASIN: B07KX64ZB3) 2018 (first published in 1873).

Summary: The story of a young boy who gives himself to discover his own work within God’s work and how he finds his vocation.

This story is a kind of Horatio Alger story with a spiritual twist. Willie Macmichael is the son of a country doctor, beloved by his patients. The doctor has an interesting educational philosophy, letting Willie learn on his own until he’s ready and motivated to go to school. So Willie explores about the village. Conversations with a widow who knits and sews persuade him that it might be time to find some worthy work to do. As he discusses her contention that we work but God doesn’t need to with his father, he is persuaded that God is always working and that the work of people is found within that work.

So he goes about exploring the world of work, trying shoe-making, carpentry, and blacksmithing, becoming proficient in each and making friends with those who taught him. He figures out on his own how to read, reading to Hector, the shoe-maker. Then he is ready for school, in which he delights.

He and a friend discover an old well. Willie, endlessly clever, devises a way to pump water to irrigate his parent’s garden, and then makes a Rube Goldberg alarm to wake himself up to stargaze at night. When his Granny needs to move in, he determines to make one of the rooms in the nearby ruins of an old building habitable. Spelman, the carpenter helps him, and he helps Spelman with water from the well, which seems to have healing properties.

That brings us to another aspect of Willie’s character. He has a tender heart. He wants to save his mother waking to feed his baby sister. Later, when Agnes wishes she were a bird that could perch in the trees, Willie works unbeknownst to her to create a place in the trees, safely reached. He moves to give his grandmother room, and later, an ill tradesman.

But it is a conversation with the town clergy that plays a key part in Willie finding his vocation. And it is not as a minister. Rather, it will involve the old ruins, the well, and a partnership with his father. None of what Willie has done is wasted. Instead, it weaves into good work beyond what Willie could have imagined.

I have to admit, Willie seems to be too good to be true. This was written while MacDonald was editing Good Words for the Young and is the second of his boy’s novels. He makes a few mistakes in his inventions, but, if I recall correctly, is guilty of no deliberate wrongdoing. Unlike Pilgrim’s Process, there seems to be no straying from the path that makes one chastened but wiser. I can’t help wondering if boys might have better identified with Willie if there had been a bit of mischief.

That said, while probably not one of the best of MacDonald’s stories, it is diverting and delightful. It points us toward the practical truth that we find our vocation as we faithfully do the work at hand. And with that, we find that we indeed work within the work of God.

Review: Into the Heart of Romans

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Cover image of "Into the Heart of Romans" by N.T. Wright

Into the Heart of Romans, N.T. Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310157748), 2023.

Summary: A close reading of Romans 8, focusing on the purpose, presence, and profound love in Christ for all who believe meant to assure them of not only their ultimate destiny but of God’s favor even as they share in the sufferings of Christ amid a groaning creation.

N.T. Wright has been studying the book of Romans for fifty years, publishing both scholarly and popular commentaries on Paul’s masterpiece, as well as drawing extensively on Romans in his Pauline scholarship. This book reflects both the culmination of this scholarship as well as changes in his thought through discussions with his students.

The focus of the book is on the majestic culmination in Romans 8 to Paul’s arguments in Romans 1-7. Romans 8 is indeed the heart of Romans as central in the text of the letter and key as a transition from the argument of the first seven chapters to the discussions on the calling of Israel in 9-11 and the applicatory material of chapters 12-16. But what is Paul’s conclusion and how did Wright’s thinking about it change.

We have traditionally read this chapter is one of assurance of our salvation in Christ, as those not under condemnation, as those for whom God works good in all things, and for whom nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. Wright would not disagree with these things, but has come to see something equally rich–the presence, power, and profound approval of God in Christ for us in the present moment. For many of Paul’s readers, even as is the case for many in the present day, the present is a time of suffering. Paul’s message is that this, in fact is their vocation, and it is one of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, that the spirit (Wright uses the lower case throughout) groans, intercedes, and empowers, and that Christians can be assured of God’s approval (and not condemnation) and God’s protection in life and death.

After introductory material setting Romans 8 in its context, Wright breaks the book into eight sections. For each section, Wright asks what the opening and closing reveals about the theme. He then looks at Paul’s connecting words to unpack the logic of his argument. He then looks at the contexts in Paul’s wider world, both Jewish and Greco-Roman, that provides resonances for what Paul is saying. A few insights I appreciated out of the wealth of material here:

  • Romans 8:1-4. There is no condemnation because God condemned sin in the flesh of Jesus, fulfilling what Torah could only anticipate.
  • Romans 8:5-11. The spirit of the risen Christ enables God’s people in the present time to please God in our bodies.
  • Romans 8:12-17. Wright challenges the moralizing anthropology of our Platonic notions of heaven with the idea of our vocation in the new creation, already begun in which we are God’s spirit-empowered agents. That vocation is as fellow heirs with Christ, crying “Abba” even as we share in suffering, with the hope of resurrection.
  • Romans 8:17-21. “The primary meanings of ‘glory’ in this passage are, simultaneously, the glorious presence of God himself dwelling within us by the spirit, and the wise, healing, reconciling rule of God’s people over the whole creation. These two — God’s presence and human rule — are made for each other. They fit together” (p. 110).
  • Romans 8:22-27. We enter, perhaps most deeply into our vocation, as we enter into the world’s suffering, the groaning creation, enabled by God’s spirit to pray with lament and longing.
  • Romans 8:28-30. Wright challenges the traditional “all things work for good” translating it rather “God works all things together for good with those who love him,” particularly in calling, justifying, and glorifying us.
  • Romans 8:31-34. An interesting side note in this chapter is Wright’s questioning of the Feast of Christ the King, contending that it takes away from the idea of the Ascension as Christ’s installation as King.
  • Romans 8:34-39. The theme of our vocation makes sense of all the “bad” things of vv. 35-36 with the assurance that none of these will separate us from the love of God in Christ.

Wright’s situating of the assurance of God’s love, approval, and protection within the vocation of Christians as sharing in Christ’s sufferings in a groaning creation profoundly deepens our reading of this powerful chapter. This is not “happy-clappy” Christianity insensitive to the world’s struggles. It is not prosperous and privileged Christianity by the standards of the world. This is a profound word for Christians who have entered into the groanings of our world and for those whose faithfulness has led to suffering, that this is not their fault, that God is with them, and even praying with them in their laments. This is a profound word that there is nothing that the world or the powers can throw in their face or their lives to part them from God. Even as God said to Israel, “I will be your God” so God says to the larger human family in Christ.

Wright is not an easy read. It was a gift to read this with a local book group, particularly one with a member deeply familiar with Wright’s work (not me) who supplemented our discussions with background material from Wright. Thanks, Dan, and all my friends, who labored to dig out the wealth of insight in this book!

Review: God at Work

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God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life, Gene Edward Veith, Jr. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2002.

Summary: A theology of vocation, rooted in the thought of Martin Luther, and covering God’s call over all of our lives.

It seems there are two extremes in the discussion. On one hand there is the notion of vocation as a religious calling that was the dominant idea prior to the Reformation, and there is the modern idea, which equates vocation with job–vocational training is job training. Gene Edward Veith, Jr. digs into the Reformers ideas of vocation, particularly those of Martin Luther, drawing extensively on Luther theologian Gustav Wingren’s Luther on Vocation. I found the book laden with insights giving meaning not only to our work but to all of life because Veith would insist that God’s calling extends to ever dimension of life, all the roles we fill as believer, congregant, spouse, parent, child, citizen, employee or employer.

One of the first was a subtle challenge to Weber’s Protestant work ethic. Veith proposes that the Reformed doctrine of vocation and its emphasis on encouraging the full expression of the individual’s unique gifts means we work not to prove our election but rather because we are elect, with a deep sense of the satisfaction and fulfillment that may come out of our work. Vocation is a place where we experience the love of God and act out of love and service in grateful response. He especially speaks of this in role relationships that the culture views as all about power. For the Christian, our vocation is lived out in prayer, in love, and service.

One of the basic grounds of vocation is that God sovereignly has chosen to work through human beings. He speaks to us, feeds us, heals us, and protects us through human beings faithfully living their vocations. When we speak of vocation, we speak of God’s “calling.” This is not singular. We have a number of callings. First of all, God calls us to himself through Christ. We all have callings to display God’s grace and mercy. We are called into families, into churches, into employment, into citizenship. Some have the calling for a period of being students. A significant aspect of calling, Veith insists, using the example of safety personnel who rushed into the Twin Towers on 9/11, consist simply in doing one’s job well. He devotes chapters to work, family, church, and society. In some of these he allows that one’s vocation as a peace officer or soldier, or judge or executioner, allows one to take lives lawfully that one could not do in one’s personal life. In others, like that of spouse, we violate our vocation if we join ourselves to any other than the person with whom we are covenanted in marriage, sinning against our vocation in the process. For pastors, he has challenging things to say about what does and does not fulfill pastoral calling, and how those with the ministry of the word, prayer, and spiritual care forfeit these to “run” the church.

He recurs to these ideas in the ethics of vocation. In many dimensions of life, sin is acting contrary to one’s calling. Often this means understanding our various callings–church work ought not draw us away from fulfilling our employment obligations and responsibilities well. In some seasons parenting takes precedence over some of the spiritual disciplines we might give ourselves to in other seasons. He speaks of the trials we face in our vocations and the practice of prayer and faith as we lean into these.

The concluding chapter focuses on resting in our vocations, accepting what we are rather than longing for what we are not, realizing we can please God in every good endeavor. And we look forward to our ultimate rest.

This book offers a whole of life perspective to calling, that recognizes that the same One calls in all of life. God is not just in church. He’s in the home, the kitchen, the bedroom, the shop floor, the laboratory, the crop-filled field, the city council chamber and the courtroom. God is at work through people in all of these places whether they recognize their calling or not. But for the Christian there is the great joy of knowing that as we “do our jobs” in each of these areas, often in ways little different from others, we know that we work alongside God. This is a wonderful book for enlarging our perspective on the significance of our lives. We are called.