work

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posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,098
113
#1
the sermon this past weekend at my little congregation was about work.
naturally - it had the focus you might expect, talking about the 'Christian work ethic' how we should consider ourselves to work for God, not men, the Boss with the capital B instead of the boss with the lowercase b, so we should not grumble, or do a poor job, but be faithful and diligent -- and that whatever we find ourselves called into doing for a living, we can represent Christ as good workers, our lives being a witness to how He has performed and is performing a work in us.

but as those of you who know me by now you may expect, post's mind wanders and he doodles on his bulletin and makes what might be odd associations in his mind with the topic. i want to share some of that rambling with you and maybe give you something other than condemning this or that to think about today :)

so i was thinking of physics -- the speaker opened his teaching with the physical definition . .

the physical definition of work is a force dotted across a distance.



the calculation of the amount of work done involves an active differential of momentum ('a force') acting on a body causing a displacement.
notice that it involves something happening to a thing, and that thing being moved.

two interesting results fall out physically from this definition that i'd like to call attention to in spiritual terms.


  • the work done is path-independent. it only matters how far the object is displaced from its original location; not the route it took to get there. if you move a couch upstairs, the work done is the same whether you take it outside and lift it up through a window, haul it right up the stairs, move it across the street first or take it apart and drop it bit by bi through a skylight and then reassemble it.
  • if the displacement is zero, no work is done. that is, if the final location is the same as the starting location ((at least in the interval considered)) then the amount of physical work calculated is nil. if you move that couch back downstairs, no work has been accomplished with regard to the couch. also, if you go back home after you go to your job, you've done no work! ((haha!
    ))


how does this relate to our life as being found in Christ?

well, consider the work done on us by the Spirit of God. the Father has drawn us to Christ, separating us and calling us out of the world and from darkness, displacing us into the glorious light of His presence, from death into life. if we then return to the things that He brought us out of - in our hearts, our thinking or our actions, then no "work" is calculated, because the displacement is 0 over that interval.

what about path-independence? the preacher said, and it's very true - that with regard to the believer and his everyday vocation, '
what you do is not nearly as important as how you do it' ((see, post was paying attention to the sermon too! haha)) -- referring to scripture like Colossians 3:23 & Ephesians 6:7 -- plying your trade as though for God, not for men, with the attitude and character that reflects service to the Lord rather than an earthly 'boss' -- the heavenly Boss is your employer, no matter what your 'job' is. so is this sentiment an expression of 'path dependence' if we were to calculate spiritual 'work' ?

i'd love to hear your thoughts and comments, and however you may develop this concept more


We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
(2 Corinthians 10:5)

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 1:6)​

 
R

RobbyEarl

Guest
#2
You left out calories which can be translated into kilowatts.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,098
113
#3
You left out calories which can be translated into kilowatts.
yes, 'work' is done to turn that spiritual bread we eat into useful energy for accomplishing tasks and building up & keeping the body healthy :)

in physics, you can talk about 'work' in part done by a single force on a single object, or the 'total work' found by summing up the displacements of all objects in a system being considered and all forces applied in the system over some interval.
 
R

RobbyEarl

Guest
#4
How does physics explain the day of Joshua? You realize what must have taken place according to physic to accomplish this. or turning the sun dial backwards.
 

posthuman

Senior Member
Jul 31, 2013
36,530
13,098
113
#5
How does physics explain the day of Joshua? You realize what must have taken place according to physic to accomplish this. or turning the sun dial backwards.

i'm sorry, i don't see what that has to do with this thread at all . . ?

are you just issuing a complete rejection of all things remotely related to science or math ?

we're not replacing God with physics here. i'm just talking about spiritual understanding and wisdom, and relating it to some abstract physical concepts.


Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom:
and with all thy getting get understanding.

(Proverbs 4:7)

thanks for your input.
 
R

RobbyEarl

Guest
#6

i'm sorry, i don't see what that has to do with this thread at all . . ?

are you just issuing a complete rejection of all things remotely related to science or math ?

we're not replacing God with physics here. i'm just talking about spiritual understanding and wisdom, and relating it to some abstract physical concepts.


Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom:
and with all thy getting get understanding.

(Proverbs 4:7)

thanks for your input.
well delta on
 
J

JustWhoIAm

Guest
#7
yes, 'work' is done to turn that spiritual bread we eat into useful energy for accomplishing tasks and building up & keeping the body healthy :)

in physics, you can talk about 'work' in part done by a single force on a single object, or the 'total work' found by summing up the displacements of all objects in a system being considered and all forces applied in the system over some interval.
English, please QQ
 
Feb 28, 2016
11,311
2,972
113
#8
nice post, POST.

Jesus' paycheck for our work brings us many lovely, Spiritual, gifts, peace being one of the greatest...
i think, what we do and how we do it definitely go hand-in-hand...
 
J

jaybird88

Guest
#9
hard work used to be a Christian virtue. how much you could roof, plow, labor in a day. and you were proud of all the work you accomplished at the end of the day and how much money you made from it was not part of the equation. now its measured on how much money you made from it.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#10
the sermon this past weekend at my little congregation was about work.
naturally - it had the focus you might expect, talking about the 'Christian work ethic' how we should consider ourselves to work for God, not men, the Boss with the capital B instead of the boss with the lowercase b, so we should not grumble, or do a poor job, but be faithful and diligent -- and that whatever we find ourselves called into doing for a living, we can represent Christ as good workers, our lives being a witness to how He has performed and is performing a work in us.

but as those of you who know me by now you may expect, post's mind wanders and he doodles on his bulletin and makes what might be odd associations in his mind with the topic. i want to share some of that rambling with you and maybe give you something other than condemning this or that to think about today :)

so i was thinking of physics -- the speaker opened his teaching with the physical definition . .

the physical definition of work is a force dotted across a distance.



the calculation of the amount of work done involves an active differential of momentum ('a force') acting on a body causing a displacement.
notice that it involves something happening to a thing, and that thing being moved.

two interesting results fall out physically from this definition that i'd like to call attention to in spiritual terms.


  • the work done is path-independent. it only matters how far the object is displaced from its original location; not the route it took to get there. if you move a couch upstairs, the work done is the same whether you take it outside and lift it up through a window, haul it right up the stairs, move it across the street first or take it apart and drop it bit by bi through a skylight and then reassemble it.
  • if the displacement is zero, no work is done. that is, if the final location is the same as the starting location ((at least in the interval considered)) then the amount of physical work calculated is nil. if you move that couch back downstairs, no work has been accomplished with regard to the couch. also, if you go back home after you go to your job, you've done no work! ((haha!
    ))


how does this relate to our life as being found in Christ?

well, consider the work done on us by the Spirit of God. the Father has drawn us to Christ, separating us and calling us out of the world and from darkness, displacing us into the glorious light of His presence, from death into life. if we then return to the things that He brought us out of - in our hearts, our thinking or our actions, then no "work" is calculated, because the displacement is 0 over that interval.

what about path-independence? the preacher said, and it's very true - that with regard to the believer and his everyday vocation, '
what you do is not nearly as important as how you do it' ((see, post was paying attention to the sermon too! haha)) -- referring to scripture like Colossians 3:23 & Ephesians 6:7 -- plying your trade as though for God, not for men, with the attitude and character that reflects service to the Lord rather than an earthly 'boss' -- the heavenly Boss is your employer, no matter what your 'job' is. so is this sentiment an expression of 'path dependence' if we were to calculate spiritual 'work' ?

i'd love to hear your thoughts and comments, and however you may develop this concept more

We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
(2 Corinthians 10:5)

Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you
will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 1:6)​

I do not think you're mind wanders. I think your mind does double-speed. (And scary thought. You can probably show that in an equation too.) By the middle of the first paragraph I was thinking, "No way can Post just simply take it this far."

I was right.

I failed what I was trying to become as a career choice in college, so I was dumped out the door with the degree, but without the ability to do the one thing that degree was supposed to train me to do. And with that, I was left with, "I need something to eat and to pay my rent. And I have to get out of my college room by the next semester."

Nothing was beneath me, but I would do nothing that was immoral or illegal either. Because of that, I accepted a job as a way to pay for the life I would spend apart from work. My jobs put food on the table and a roof over my head, and when they did not, or did not exist, God always provided.

Three times in my life I had a dime or less with nothing to eat, (but always a place to live), and knew there would be no money coming in for three days or three weeks. I never missed a meal. (Granted, sometimes meals were either popcorn or a pressed-ham sandwich, but it was a meal.)

And I understood both whatever I did, God was my boss, but "render to Caesar." There were times I was hired, not because I knew how to do that job, but because they saw I was trainable, willing, and mostly admitted what I knew how to do and what I was pretty sure I couldn't do. (I will never get how to do html, nor will I ever figure out your mathematical formulas. At least I know what I can't do. lol) And they kept me because I wouldn't cheat on them. If they hired me for 40 hours a week, they got 40 hours a week of work. I would not play games on the computer to pretend like I was working. I'd rather clean the office. (And I still hate cleaning, even if I had jobs cleaning. lol) I knew who my bosses were, but I knew who The Boss was, and he always sees what I'm doing.

But working was always about affording my life after work and on weekends. The real work came through church. They never paid (by my request at times), but there was always someone to help -- either at the building or at their homes. Whenever I had free time, (time not needed for family and to take care of household responsibilities), God has always put me to work.

I can no longer do a job. I can barely manage the basics required for chores. But God is still putting me to work for the kingdom. Ends up, there is always that kind of work available for those who know where to look.

But, not grumbling? Why do I have to see this kind of post just before I choose between washing dishes or folding laundry?
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#11
You kind of have to keep reading word-by-word, (and an equation with letters instead of numbers isn't words at all, so just skip over that all together unless it means something to you) assume some you just won't get, but if you read word-by-word by the time you're done you know what Post is saying even if there were chunks you didn't get.

(Brains translated down to us common folk advice.)

 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#12
How does physics explain the day of Joshua? You realize what must have taken place according to physic to accomplish this. or turning the sun dial backwards.
Think of the work done to push the sun backwards during the time it appeared to sit still.

It fits quite well. God still had to do the work to allow Joshua to do what God wanted..
 

crossnote

Senior Member
Nov 24, 2012
30,704
3,649
113
#13
I spent two weeks planting 'square roots' and have no flowers or veggies to show for it :(
 

crossnote

Senior Member
Nov 24, 2012
30,704
3,649
113
#15
Think of the work done to push the sun backwards during the time it appeared to sit still.

It fits quite well. God still had to do the work to allow Joshua to do what God wanted..
I thought it was the earth that moved :p
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#16
hard work used to be a Christian virtue. how much you could roof, plow, labor in a day. and you were proud of all the work you accomplished at the end of the day and how much money you made from it was not part of the equation. now its measured on how much money you made from it.
Ummm, I worked up to 1999. My hard work was cleaning people's houses or offices, counseling runaway/throwaway kids or addicts, telemarketing, office work, copywriting, bookkeeping and resume writing. I was never afraid to ask for more, but knew not to waste my time if I couldn't get it. I simply quit jobs if it wasn't enough money to afford my lifestyle, (or it was, but I really don't like ducking behind a desk to avoid a drug war with guns right outside my office.)

It is measured by whatever you choose to measure it, but don't assume everyone else is measuring it like you think we are.
 
D

Depleted

Guest
#17
I spent two weeks planting 'square roots' and have no flowers or veggies to show for it :(
You're lucky. Our garden center ran out of square roots before I got there.
 
Sep 4, 2012
14,424
689
113
#18
how does this relate to our life as being found in Christ?

well, consider the work done on us by the Spirit of God. the Father has drawn us to Christ, separating us and calling us out of the world and from darkness, displacing us into the glorious light of His presence, from death into life. if we then return to the things that He brought us out of - in our hearts, our thinking or our actions, then no "work" is calculated, because the displacement is 0 over that interval.


Work = force x distance

We are commanded to believe into (eis) Christ., not just statically believe in (en) Christ. Into means moving from one place to another (distance), i.e., out of the flesh into Christ. This requires effort on our part, which applied produces work.
 
E

eternally-gratefull

Guest
#20
I thought it was the earth that moved :p
Still took work :p

Come to think of it, How much work would it take to take this globe called the earth, and stop it in its track and hold it there, then push it forward again to the exact same speed it was before it stopped?
so thanks, Helps bring it to perspective