“Prepare your work outside, get everything ready for you in the field;
and after that build your house.”
Proverbs 24:27 (NRSV
The picture at the right gives you an idea of the condition of the house. Gutters were falling off. Paint was drastically needed. As I remember the story, there were places you could see through the siding directly into or out of the house, and the roof leaked. In the winter time, if water was left out in the kitchen, it would be frozen by morning. Grandma wanted a new house – in a very bad way!
Grandpa had another plan. He said, “We’ll build the barn first, and the barn will pay for the new house!”
The North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, of which I am a member, started a new program for the development of clergy called the Clergy Fruitfulness Initiative. The purpose is to help us re-evaluate our gifts and abilities for ministry and determine how those are being used (or not) in our current place of ministry.
A key element of this program is the Birkman Method personality assessment, which is a tool to help us see what makes us tick and what pushes our buttons. What needs do we have that need to be met in order for us to thrive? How do we react when those needs are not being met, and what can we do to counter these negative responses?
By going through this process, we are reminded that we are God’s creations. Our gifts and personalities are good. Our weaknesses are not something to apologize for; they are simply a part of who we are as God’s creations. Luckily another of God’s creations has the gifts we don’t have.
Ephesians 2:10 comes to mind: “For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” (NRSV
Ultimately, our true place of work is in us, which is God’s creation. Although our citizenship may be in the kingdom of God (see Philippians 3:20), our home is in us, which is also God’s creation. And God looked at all God had created and called it “very good.”
We are both “barn” and “house,” place of work and place of rest. We have to work within ourselves, and we have to rest within ourselves. We need to build up our inner “barn” before we can work, be successful, and find peace in our day job (from which we draw our salary) and even in our lives, our inner being. We need to know what God-given tools are in our inner “barn” that can be used in our place of work (be it a church, factory, hospital, retail store, etc.) before we can find fulfillment, before we can feel at home even in ourselves.
For instance, I’ve realized through the Birkman Method that I “have the combined strengths of being able to spend time on my own or with my close friends and being comfortable in social settings.” These are tools in my barn that needs to be built up by combining “socially casual activities with plenty of time to be and work by myself or in the company of close friends.” When I am not able to use these tools and when these needs are not met, I become stressed and do not feel at home, at peace, or at ease in myself. “Too much group activity, especially when forced on me, is likely to cause me to withdraw while extended periods of solitude can generate feelings that cause me to seek out the support and acceptance of the group.” The stress forces me to work on my barn (my gifts or tools for works) that I should have been working on and maintaining all along so I could rest easily in my home, in myself.
- How have you felt fulfillment through jobs, tasks, or activities you like to perform?
- How have you felt stressed in your jobs, tasks, or activities?
- What gifts or abilities do you need to use to feel fulfilled?
- What needs to be built up in you for you to feel at home in yourself?
This is a great post. I especially like the line that works don’t save us, but it is what we are created to do! Check out Claire Burge on the high calling … she posted a great quote this week that sometimes it is our strengths which cause us to burn out …. I’m paraphrasing here, but the quote is great.