Behold
Launching an organization is like crafting the terms of a consulting engagement: Clarification of terms, defining the scope and the desired outcome, is imperative to ultimate success.
In creating the Charlotte Institute for Faith & Work, we meticulously thought through the vision and the why. Yet as we’ve launched the inaugural class of The 412 Fellowship, our cornerstone offering that will provide thought and practical leadership throughout the city, an additional—more formative—question has surfaced.
It’s a question most of us rarely ask, but one that is pivotal in shaping how we navigate and interpret most every situation we encounter:
What is our posture?
During The 412 Fellows’ orientation, we walked through program goals and reading schedules, but then we turned down an unexpected path. A path leading to Michelangelo’s masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
How does it feel to stand in the presence of a masterpiece?
Many recounted similar experiences, often with art or nature, where a brief encounter with some aspect of the created world granted a glimpse of the eternal. Their reflection evoked words like overwhelmed, breathtaking, and awe.
In comparison, we discussed our responses to art that we don’t understand or like. We think (or even say) things like, “My three-year-old could easily create that'' or “I don’t get it or like it”, when critiquing abstract or modern art, or any art form we consider to be, “less-than” our preferred genre.
In one situation, we stand under in awe.
In another, we stand over and judge.
How might our everyday lives look different if we really believed that every human being is made in the image of our Creator? Innately granted dignity and beauty and potential? Would we be so quick to stand over and judge?
Or, just maybe, we could learn to develop the posture of standing under, believing that the Creator of the universe is revealing his cosmic truths through the very people we are quick to discount, the situations we prefer to avoid, and the work that feels overwhelming or meaningless (or too often, the misplaced source of our identity and security).
One of our 412 Fellows aptly reframed the question:
How can we learn to ‘behold’ rather than ‘size up’?
Well said.
At the Charlotte Institute for Faith & Work (CIFW), every initiative undertaken, resource shared, or program offered will in some way help each of us consider and begin answering that question.
Clarification of terms, defining scope and desired outcome, is imperative to success.
At CIFW, we exist to restore the connection between faith and work for the common good of Charlotte, to the glory of God. We believe that in order to restore that connection, we must begin by reimagining work: its original design and purpose and the role it should play in our individual lives and communities.
But the only way to make room for imagination is to develop the humble habit of curiosity —in every boardroom, with every client and coworker. Sometimes while receiving difficult feedback or scrolling through news feeds or showing up at work for what feels like nothing more than the daily grind.
Rather than standing over in judgment, or stepping back out of resignation, dare to imagine that God is present and at work in all the seemingly insignificant and mundane moments.
Pause.
Look up.
Behold —
Photo by David Johnson at Silent Images.