What unexpected turns has your work experience, or the work experience of a spouse, taken?
What messages have you received about the kind of work you should be doing or the way you should be doing it from teachers, ministers, “experts,” or voices in the media? How have these messages been helpful? How have they been hurtful?
How would you describe the tension between passion and need, between aspiration and limits, and between what’s planned and what’s given in your own work life or that of your spouse?
In what ways are you satisfied and unsatisfied in your work? How has your degree of satisfaction changed over the years?
What does the expression “finding livelihood” mean to you?
To what degree is financial responsibility tied in with your work?
How would you describe the presence of Sabbath-like leisure in your life right now? In what ways could you expand its degree or quality without changing jobs?
What people and events can you witness—pay attention to or “see ”—through your work?
Identify at least two moments or images from your work that have stuck in your mind as meaningful, even if you’re not fully sure why. Describe them with as much physical detail as possible.
What role does “love” play in your work? How would you like that to change, if at all?
Use your imagination to wonder about the ways God’s grace may be flowing to you and through you to others as a result of, or in the process of, your work.
How can you reimagine your current work and life to be all of one piece in a sacramental approach to living?
In what way does prayer help inform your work decisions or attitudes?
Think about the work you do and the work happening inside of you; then answer this question: What is your body of work?
How can you practice being more open to signals of meaning and signs of transcendent reality in your day-to-day work?
In what ways do you think of your work as a spiritual journey? How can you use your personal agency to increasingly regard your work as a spiritual journey?
Consider ways to talk about work in your home, neighborhood, community, or church that will help you not only meet the physical and emotional challenges of work but also help you find camaraderie for your own progress of work and leisure and pursuit of livelihood in the fullest sense of the word.
How does the treatment of work in Finding Livelihood open up the conversation about the complexity of work and what it means to be human?
Questions for Personal Reflection or Reading Groups
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