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What territory has God given you to work toward the common good? What are the ways that your job or your profession or even your industry could address real needs in your community? Amy Sherman, author of Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good, provides some context for our particular moment in God’s larger story and shares a few stories of people who found their “redemptive edge.”
On the beginning of God's story:
"We are part of this big story that is God's story that begins with creation. It begins with the way the world ought to be...It's marked by the Hebrew term "shalom"–it's the notion that we have peace with God, that there is an intimacy in our relationship, creature to creator."
On how sin changed everything:
"Sin brings into the world both guilt and corruption. Sin introduces spiritual poverty: the relationship with God is broken. [Sin introduces] psychological poverty: there's no more wholeness in our sense of self. It brings about relational poverty... And it brings about physical poverty: our relationship to the physical environment actually changes."
On how Christ brings about restoration:
"Because of the redemptive work of Christ, he has begun repairing all that was lost in the fall...The accomplishment on the cross is the opportunity to have new life with God, with self, with others and with the earth itself. And Jesus' ministry...[brings] foretastes of the coming kingdom...This is our place in the story."
Read Kingdom Calling by Amy Sherman.*Check out our course with Amy at The Faith & Work Classroom.Download the episode transcript.
*–Purchase with purpose. Amazon donates to Denver Institute when you shop at smile.amazon.com.