One of the factors the Menninger clinic lists in their five criteria
for mental health is "productivity." Freud said, "Work is the reality that connects us to the community." My favorite definition of work is "work is the psychological glue that holds life together." I would like to think outside the normal parameters for a few minutes and consider several areas of accomplishment that are often overlooked.
Providing hospitality is accomplishment. Bernard Shaw said, "Hospitality is providing space for mutual growth" - not that the host should become as the guest, or the guest as the host, but that both should maintain their individuality as they develop their mutuality. Once an executive in New York called me in Cincinnati and asked to come and spend the weekend to talk over a merger deal in Germany. I was hesitant because he was one of the most profane men I've ever known. I wasn't too comfortable with him being around our small children. He came and, to his credit, never said a profane word during the two days. We continued our normal family devotion including him and as we drove out to the airport he said, "Fred, the two days hasn't changed me but thank you for not letting me change your family."
Another time we had invited a Buddhist student to come have dinner with us. We had never met him before and wondered if we should have the normal blessing. We decided it was our home and should continue our normal practice. At the end of the prayer he said, "thank you for praying because due to my religion if you had not I would have had to pray by myself." Hospitality is given as one of the spiritual gifts. It is part of the work of the Body. There are various accomplishments which we overlook but should not. For example, think about the ministry of introductions. As I travel around the country, I meet people who should know each other, not for just business reasons but because they could become friends. They are people of like interests and would challenge each other productively. This past week I got a letter written on a plane from Houston to Miami by a friend from Miami. I felt that he should know a man in Houston. I suggested it and the letter was telling me about a day that they spent together. He was so grateful and excited, for as the bible said, "iron sharpeneth iron."
There are accomplishments in charities, in civic affairs, in all sorts of things which the puritans defined "the common good." Someone said boredom and hubris are dangerous combination. Oftentimes I see affluent women who are making great accomplishments in such things as junior league, parent -teachers, other national movements, and I think how much smarter they are and how much happier they are than those people who are are unoccupied, become bored and being bored feel above contribution. They are candidates for misery. Use without contribution will bring damage. "Service is the rent we pay on our space in life," and those of us who occupy some pretty fancy space should expect to pay some pretty high rent.
As a Christian our gift is our identity. It is our assurance—at least one of them——that we belong to the Body, for we have something to do. When you belong to a corporation you have a job. When you enter a profession you are called a doctor, lawyer, CPA , based on your work. It is your identity. In the Christian life our gift is our identity and nowhere will you find the gift of observation, therefore we are to be more than observers. We are to be participants. This identifies us with the community as Freud said work does with society.
