God loveth adverbs

Taken from Philip Yancey's "Rumours of another world"...which I am desperately trying to finish. Yes, I am committing myself to ONE bk for a change.

This passage has helped me to refresh my view of the mundane things I do each day, as part of my job....the vocal exercises, the grading, the manual amendments, the e-mails, figuring out chords, sourcing for songs etc. It's all worth it in the end...

"Only one life, 'twill soon be past
Only what's done for Christ will last."

Andrea: think u'll enjoy the last paragraph abt finding God in 'English Composition 101'. :)

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"The Puritans had a saying, 'God loveth adverbs,' implying that God cares more about the spirit in which we live them than the concrete results. They sought to connect all of life to its source in God, bringing the two words together rather than dividing them into sacred and secular....

I heard one clue from the Lutheran professor and author Martin Marty who described his professional life this way: 'I go to work because I have a job that's part of a career, which is part of a profession that I do because of my vocation that is the shape of my life.' Marty had grasped the big picture, his calling, which put everything else in place. Somehow the daily tasks required-in his case, grading papers, lectures, committee meetings, writing, and research- fit together as rungs of a ladder leading all the way up to a VOCATION, a word taken from the Latin for 'calling.' Marty went on to say that a sense of calling may be the most important step for any who seek fulfilment and meaning....

My friend the late Lew Smedes tells in his memoir of being introduced, in a class in English Composition at Calvin College, 'to a God the likes of whom I had never even heard about.' This God, says Smedes,

'liked elegant sentences and was offended by dangling modifiers. Once you believe this, where can you stop? If the Maker of the Universe admired words well put together, think of how he must love sound thought well put together, and if he loved sound thinking, how he must love a Bach concerto and if he loved a Bach concerto think of how he prized any human effort to bring a foretaste, be it ever so small, of his Kingdom of Justice and peace and happiness to the victimized people of the world. In short, I met the Maker of the Universe who loved the world he made and was dedicated to its redemption. I found the joy of the Lord, not a prayer meeting, but in English Composition 101.'

I too have learned that my work, in all its tedium, matters to the Maker of the Universe. God loveth adverbs."