From TM

"I was struck by something you wrote in this e-mail: your reference to the alienatedness of the world. Perhaps a word was missing there and you meant to write "corporate" or "business" before "world". But regardless of what was or was not lost in trans(crip/la)tion, there's something eerily accurate about the idea of the world being alienat(ed/ing), and how alien we are / are bound to be in it.

I have a great job and a great life. But despite having worked here for only a few months, I've already come to realize how essential it is for me to not look for satisfaction or completion in it. Sure sometimes, by God's grace, I experience both in the process of doing my work. But the work, the people, the whole situation quite frankly does not provide me justification (as a person) or proffer a deep sense of humanity or personhood. On the contrary, it seems to always demand more and more on my end, always seems to require me to justify and prove myself over and over again. It's kind of like college... And it's confusing and disheartening sometimes, because I never really feel good enough, never really feel like I've done enough, never feel as though past achievements guarantee future ones.

And I find myself asking questions similar to ones that you seem to be asking. Am I justified in what I'm doing or by what I've done? Am I anything more than a robot, a new hire, a corporate tool? Do my experiences -- big and small, transformative and tangential -- do they matter to anyone but me? And if they do, how do I know that they do? From the people around me? From the people who give me work and check off my experience and my transcript? From the things I produce? From what I see looking back at me in the mirror everyday? From the people who laugh at my stupid jokes or pat me on the head when I do good things?

No. Not at all. The only justification I can grab hold of and run with day in and day out is that which flows out from God's promises. From Romans 8 and Hebrews 13. From Psalm 23 and Isaiah 52. From Proverbs 2, John 17, Ephesians 6 and Matthew 5.

At the end of the day, we can be assured that God sees us as people, irrespective of whether others do as well. And we can, as He does, commit to doing our darnedest to unearth the personhood of those around us.

So the real question I suppose for you (and for me) is how do we channel our faith in order to overcome our fears, doubts and insecurities in a way that enables us to see and engage the humanity in others? How do we keep our inheritance in God's kingdom in clear enough view that we don't get muddled and thrown off by all the small fry in front of us? How can we keep our identity as God's children so seared on our hearts and minds that we can have the kind of assurance that results in the Christian character Jesus outlines in the Beatitudes? How do we be cities on hills, lights on lampstands, and the salt of the earth?

I think answering these questions provides a path to answering some of the ones that you asked. After all, overcoming the fundamental alienatedness among us is, in a sense, the purpose of the gospel. And as co-heirs of this gospel, it's something we're going to have to be prepared to spend our whole lives pushing back against.

That is, the hard, cross-bearing truth is that we will be called to shine our lights not in that which is already light, but in darkness. We will be called to bring flavor to things and to people that are flavorless. We will be called to breed familiarity in that which is strange, to love and befriend that which is alien. And job interviews are just one circumstance among many where things will hit the fan.

But when they do, I encourage you to not be surprised or taken aback. And do not despair. We are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people. And the world that dehumanized our Lord in ways that it never will do us is our mission field."