{"id":3691,"date":"2011-05-08T20:07:25","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T00:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/deaconsbench\/?p=3691"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:44:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:44:00","slug":"do-you-know-what-brings-you-gladness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2011\/05\/do-you-know-what-brings-you-gladness\/","title":{"rendered":""Do you know what brings you gladness?""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

That\u2019s the stirring question at the heart of a recent post by spiritual writer Tony Woodlief, and the point of it seems to echo something that was mentioned at the royal wedding last weekend: \u201cIf you become whom God meant you to be, you will set the world on fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t the world need more heat and light?\u00a0 And gladness?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A snip of Woodlief\u2019s essay<\/a><\/strong>, which concerns an address he gave to college students:<\/p>\n

The particular words of (Frederick) Buechner\u2019s to which I direct them concern vocation. What he says is that our vocation is that place where our deep gladness meets the world\u2019s great hunger. \u201cIn a world where there is so much drudgery, so much grief, so much emptiness and fear and pain, our gladness in our work is as much needed as we ourselves need to be glad.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are scandalous notions, that we need to be glad, that the world needs our gladness. Our Puritan forbears were certainly suspicious of gladness, and their modern, secular inheritors of grimness\u2014professors and politicians and preachers\u2014demand not gladness, but utility. Get an education so you can earn a living. If you don\u2019t apply yourself, how will you ever get ahead? Do something useful with yourself. <\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s good, I think, to find ways to scandalize young people, especially since there\u2019s so little remaining, in an era of Lady Gaga and eight-figure payouts for failed CEOs, that might seem scandalous.<\/p>\n

And so when I stood in front of some of the brightest students in the country a few weeks back, delivering the last of a series of guest lectures, I urged them to consider Buechner\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n

We had to create some space, in order for his words to gather force in their hearts, between the gladness of which he writes, and the happiness to which students at an elite university, in this prosperous, peaceful, pleasure-besotted society, are accustomed.<\/p>\n

I suggested that genuine gladness, as opposed to momentary pleasures, is something enduring, something that has heft. I didn\u2019t have Buechner\u2019s essay, \u201cThe Calling of Voices,\u201d in front of me, because if I did I would simply have read his explanation of a gladness-inspiring vocation, which is something which \u201cleaves us with the strongest sense of sailing true north and of peace.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

H\/T Sullivan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s the stirring question at the heart of a recent post by spiritual writer Tony Woodlief, and the point of it seems to echo something that was mentioned at the royal wedding last weekend: \u201cIf you become whom God meant you to be, you will set the world on fire.\u201d Doesn\u2019t the world need more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,49,52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-this-that","category-vocations"],"yoast_head":"\n"Do you know what brings you gladness?"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"That's the stirring question at the heart of a recent post by spiritual writer Tony Woodlief, and the point of it seems to echo something that was\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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