wise words from Danny Meyer

Since the beginning, people have told me that in going into the restaurant business, I chose one of the hardest businesses in the world. True, a restaurant has all kinds of moving parts that make it particularly challenging. In order to succeed, you need to apply—simultaneously—exceptional skills in selecting real estate, negotiating, hiring, training, motivating, purchasing, budgeting, designing, manufacturing, cooking, tasting, pricing, selling, servicing, marketing, and hosting. And the purpose of all this is a product that provides pleasure and that people trust is safe to ingest into their bodies. Also, unlike almost any other manufacturer, you are actually present while the goods are being consumed and experienced, so that you can gauge your customers' reactions in real time. That's pretty complex, emotional stuff.

Why Work?

In nothing has the Church so lost her hold on reality as in her failure to understand and respect the secular vocation. She has allowed work and religion to become separate departments, and is astonished to find that, as a result, the secular work of the world is turned to purely selfish and destructive ends, and that the greater part of the worlds intelligent workers have become irreligious, or at least, uninterested in religion. But is it astonishing? How can any one remain interested in a religion which seems to have no concern with nine-tenths of his life?

- Dorothy Sayers

making amends w/ the working life

People need work. They need its challenge, its product, its achievement, its aesthetic and emotional rewards, its relational dynamics, its drama, its routine, its remuneration. Reduce the workplace only as a soapbox for evangelism, and you destroy a gift of God. For that is what work is, a gift.

- William Hendricks

rhythm, III

You see, anything that starts with depth and purpose and beauty, if it's not nurtured and taken care of, that passion and beauty and depth will always give way to dry technique.

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Now, the Sabbath was one of those things that God gave mankind to enjoy life, to drink deeply of all that is, and over a period of time, it became so technical that it stopped giving live and started sucking the life right out of the Hebrews.

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Now here's why you were created, that God might be admired, that He might be famed, that He might be worshiped. That's why you are. Now Dr. John Piper, he's made the Westminster Catechism the most popular thing in the world. And the funny thing is that people always quote it like it's him, but he's quoting the Catechism. And it says this, “God is most glorified in us when...” what? “...we are most satisfied in Him.” Here's why this is such good news. It's such good news that you and I were created to bring glory to God, because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. So, the way we give God glory and honor and reflect the magnitude of His worth to the world around us is by enjoying Him, not by simply obeying Him and doing everything He says, because we know He can damn us to hell, but rather enjoying the goodness of the way of Jesus.

So, let's go back to the Sabbath now. Go back to Mark 2. So God scoops up the dirt, breathes into it, man is born, knocks him out, breaks his rib, creates the woman, tells them to be fruitful and multiply. The prophet Habakuk would say that man was going to cover the whole globe...said that, “the whole earth would be covered with the knowledge of the glory of God.” And He creates man to display, reflect the glories, beauties and magnitude of God. Now let's get back to the Sabbath. Verse 27, “Jesus said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath'” So watch this...God begins to create...He begins to speak into being...He speaks the universe into being...the stars into being...the planets...the mountains, the oceans, the camels, the ducks, the weird things at the bottom of the ocean,He speaks all of that. The He creates man to reflect His glory, to make known his manifest wisdom.

He creates it all and everyday takes a step back and goes, “It's good...It's good...It's good...It's good...It's good.” And on day 7, He creates what for man?...Rest. Sabbath. He creates man for His glory. He creates man to enjoy Him thereby glorifying Him. And He creates the Sabbath as a tool for man to accomplish that purpose. Your enjoyment of God is inseparably woven into the idea of Sabbath. Which is why God is so serious about it throughout scripture. He puts it in the top 10, doesn't He? Right in the 10 Commandments. Leviticus 23:30 says “as for any person who does any work on this same day, that person I will destroy.” I mean He's serious enough about the Sabbath to say, “take it, or I'll kill you.” He's serious enough about the Sabbath to say “stop, or I will destroy you.”

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And the thing about the Sabbath, the Shabbat, it slows you down enough to see people again...to be grateful again. Because gratitude is the foundation of worship, and worship is the consummation of the glory of Christ in our lives.

-- matt chandler. rhythm, pt. 3

rhythm, II

'I’ve been wondering why silence bothers us so much. I think that when things go quiet, we find ourselves in the quiet. We see more clearly our own spiritual reflection and sometimes it’s hard to look at. And so, if we can fill our lives with enough noise, we won’t have to look at it! For instance, if you’ve ever tried to get quiet, and meditate, and slow down your life, whatever you really are bubbles to the surface. If you don’t have any patience and you try to slow down you’ll think “How long have I been here, 45 minutes?” No, 7 seconds. It feels like forever. If you’re angry or have a lust problem, it won’t be long until that surfaces.

Jesus gets quiet in Luke chapter 4, and within two verses, who shows up? Who? Satan, the devil. Jesus gets quiet to prepare, to prepare His heart, to prepare His mind, to hear from God. He slows it down, gets silent, and within two verses – here comes temptation, here comes distraction, here comes religious tom-foolery. Do you get it? It’s not a naked woman running through the woods that tempts Jesus. The devil is actually using Scripture on Him. “Oh sure, if you’re the Son of God you’ll be lacking in nothing. Eat. God would want you to eat, you’re his own son. God loves you Jesus. Eat.” Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” The Satan says, “Look at all the kingdoms of the earth. They can all be yours. You know they can all be yours. Scriptures say that all the kingdoms of the earth can be yours. For now they’re mine, but I’ll give them to you.”

And it’s in the silence that we must confront our demons.

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I’ll end with this. Jesus says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:30). “Yoke” is a weird word – we don’t use it a lot. It has to do with plowing fields. But Jesus here is not talking about plowing fields. The term is used to refer to a Rabbi’s teachings. So, Jesus is saying “My yoke, my teachings, the way I’m asking you to live, is easy. And the burden is light.” So let me ask some questions and then pray. I wonder if this thing we’ve been caught up in isn’t the way of Jesus at all. I wonder if this kind of mathematic, scientific approach to spirituality isn’t the

way of Jesus at all. I think if we were honest a lot of us has spent some time in church and have not found our hearts and souls relieved of the weight that seems to crush it. I wonder what would happen if we quit running, quieted the soul, faced the demons, and started on the journey to wholeness. I wonder how much easier it would be to pray, how much weight would come out of the Word, how our lives might be changed. Does your life and schedule reflect a person who wants to hear from God?'

-- matt chandler, rhythm pt. 2