04 June 2013

Meeting Plato & Shakespeare at Breakfast


I find the phrase “vocation is mission” satisfyingly descriptive. What it means is that which I do every day is my personal mission. 

We are continuously changing people in an ever-changing world and we draw on tried-and-true instruments to form new experiences and things for us, and for people around us. 

That’s the inventive/creative power we have. I love the creative work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. NT Wright said well,

“Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new Temple. They are… places where heaven and earth meet.” -Simply Christian

The Holy Spirit works with us: He doesn’t come through our door with a signboard announcing his Presence, nor with a Tweet.


If you do a bit of spiritual self-care, rather like getting ready for the day for work, it may amaze you later on at creative God can be in your life.  


Perhaps you might surprise me someday when I come down to breakfast and ‘meet another Shakespeare.’

Plato has told you a truth; but Plato is dead. 
Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you with any more. 


But, imagine what it would be to live with such men still living,
to know that Plato might break out with an original lecture tomorrow or
that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a single song. 


The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church
is a man always expecting to meet
Plato and Shakespeare tomorrow at breakfast.


 -   G K Chesterton, Orthodoxy