Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So years ago, I read a book by a Presbyterian pastor named Timothy Keller.
He has a church down in Manhattan or out in Manhattan. Wherever you're from, it's in Manhattan.
And he wrote a book, he's written a number of books that I just I find very helpful.
One book was on a theology of work. In the intro to this, he cites another book.
So here's kind of Keller referencing a book by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Now we probably know this, you probably know that Tolkien was a Catholic.
In fact, all of Tolkien's worldview was shaped by his Catholic faith.
Even Lord of the Rings, the, the trilogy that he had written,
he said that Lord of the Rings is a religious and essentially a Catholic book.
and he says, it's phenomenal. It has so much symbolism and so much like, just of again,
how Catholics look at the world written into this, like fantasy novel.
One of the things Keller points out about Tolkien, is that Tolkien was a perfectionist.
Tolkien was, you know, that creative kind of person who is never done with his work.
I don't know if you've ever been that kind of person where you start a project and it's like
you just keep tweaking it and keep tweaking it and keep tweaking it.
Well, in England apparently that tweaking is called "niggling." Niggling. N-I-G-G-L-I-N-G.
Niggling. To niggle at something is to like keep on working on it
and never be done, never be satisfied with it, but to always kind of be in process
and drive yourself crazy in the process. So, at one point, he's working on Lord of the Rings,
this, you know, massive volume, and he's created languages, he created all this backstory
and he wasn't making any forward movement and so at one point,
he had to take a break and he wrote this short story and the short story was
called Leaf by Niggle. Leaf by Niggle. And it was about this painter,
living in this small town, who had great ideas and great visions for the kind of painting he wanted to do.
He had this image of this huge beautiful tree there with you know
the sun and this wide plains and mountains in the background and he had
this whole image in his head of what this painting could possibly be, possibly be
so he had this massive canvas but all he was working on,
all he could work on was one leaf and then, you know, a knock at the door would come and
he'd have to go help and then he'd keep going back to work on the leaf
and someone else would need help and he have to go and help. And he was so frustrated
because he had this great vision in mind that he could never actually fulfill in his life.
Turns out that, spoiler, he dies and he dies
with only just that one leaf painted that he'd worked on and poured himself into.
People came to the house and they saw the leaf on the huge canvas
so they cut the canvas and made it small because it was a beautiful, beautifully
painted leaf and it's, you know, there it is in the, you know, the town art gallery
around this corner, like here it is, "Leaf by Niggle."
If we were to look at him from let's say, an atheist's perspective, you'd say,
"What a failure. I mean, the guy had this
great vision for his life, what his life could be, what his work could be and all
he painted was one leaf?
Like, that's too bad man. It's just, you know, you win some, you lose some and you lost at life."
But Niggle' story isn't over because
we realize as, as theists, as those who believe in God and specifically as
Christians, those who believe in our God, Leaf's life, or Niggle's life wasn't over
when he died. He entered into ... he was brought into heaven.
And in heaven, his guide to heaven revealed to him this huge tree that was beautifully growing
out of the ground with the sun on it, with this plain stretching out behind it
into these mountains and Niggle recognized his tree, his mountains,
the vision that, that the Lord had planted in his heart that he could never realize on earth
was now realized in heaven.
The lesson that Tolkien was trying to communicate to us and that Timothy Keller is pointing out
in his book on work, is that a lot of us might devote our lives to a great vision, right?
we might devote our lives to this great work that just never
actually gets fulfilled, that never actually gets off the ground, that never actually gets accomplished.
We might never finish the great work that the Lord has placed in our heart.
In fact, so many of us, we don't see the fruits of our labor.
We don't see the fruits of a life well-lived or a life poorly lived.
We just kind of like, we live and live and live and work and work and work and then we die
and we go, "What's it all for? All I have is this
one leaf to show for this entire life?"
And this is where the virtue of faith
and the virtue of hope, this is where the perspective of God comes in.
For the rest of the world, they might say, "Wow, that person wasted their life painting one leaf,"
but we realize this: a life that's lived in Christ and devoted to one great thing,
whether that great thing is like to teach my class of, you know, fourth graders
or to raise up my kids as best I can
or to treat the patients that I see in hospital or in the clinic as best I can
or whatever, maybe to edit videos and maybe it's, it's to produce a great content online.
Whatever the thing that you have in your heart, in your mind,
whatever you're working for, even if it's not accomplished on this earth.
we believe, we trust that the Lord can do something with it that radiates through eternity.
This is one of the things that we believe as Catholic Christians:
There's no thing that we—you and I can choose to do on this earth and in this life that doesn't matter,
that every good work that you and I try to do, it matters.
Every sin you and I choose, that matters too, because we believe that there's a God we trust.
And if everything we do is for him,
then everything we do can be redeemed by him, that everything we do gets offered up to him,
all those things will be accepted by him, transformed by him, and made new by him,
that they can give glory to him forever in heaven.
Your work, even if your work is to pick up garbage every, every morning from, you know, 5:00 a.m. until noon
that work can give God glory if you do it for him.
"Yeah but it doesn't make an impact." It matters.
You're made in God's image and likeness, therefore you matter
and everything you do in his image and likeness, everything you do in his name
is offered to him, received by him, transformed by him, made new by him, and gives glory to him forever.
So let's make this day, what we have, like all the things that we offer to God are the good things
and we stay away from the bad things because both good things and bad things matter.
Make your life a gift. Make your life a blessing.
Make your life something that can be offered to God to give him glory,
not only in this life but also in eternity.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless.