Keller's Every Good Endeavor - Chapter One

I’ll be facilitating a discussion on chapter one (pages 33-43) of Keller’s work this evening. Here are some questions I’ve pulled together for discussion.

1.       Keller opens chapter one with Genesis2:1-3;15 and then says “ this  view of work – connected with divine, orderly creation and human purpose – is distinct among the great faiths and belief systems of the world" [33].

Have you encountered or considered how other faith and belief systems are different? How so?
  

2.       Keller writes “The fact that God put work in paradise is startling to us because we so often think of work as necessary evil or even punishment” [36]. He goes on to say “work is as much a basic human need as food” [37].

How have you observed this to be true?  
  

3.       Have you ever thought of work as one of the Ten Commandments? (Exodus 20:9)
  

4.       Keller writes, “In short, work – and lots of it – is an indispensable component in a meaningful human life. It is a supreme gift from God and one of the main things that gives our lives purpose. But it must play its proper role, subservient to God. It must regularly give way not just to work stoppage for bodily repair but also to joyful reception of the world and of ordinary life” [42].  

How do you define, experience, and enjoy the limits of work?