The fourth annual Faith and Business Forum was held this past week, and it showcased Dennis Bakke, author of Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job. Bakke started AES, a global power company, serving as CEO and President for a number of years.

Bakke suggests that work is God’s primary vocation for man. Being made in the image of God, we are all called to be co-creators with God to fulfill our calling at work. This means that there is no separation between sacred work or spiritual work. Work is not meant to be something we do just to bring in the material resources to enable us to do sacred work.

According to Bakke, Christians tend to think that sacred work is the primary commission. That since Jesus left the church with the Great Commission, doing “the work of God” becomes our primary calling. Therefore, apparently, we are led to believe that we are to be busy with sacred ministry and our “secular” occupations merely serve primarily to put a roof over our heads, feed our families and us to enable us to support sacred ministry and spend time volunteering in such ministries as well. Read the rest of this entry »

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I have just added the latest book by Tom Morris, If Harry Potter Ran General Electric to my LibraryThing catalog. Morris is an erswhile philosophy professor extraordinarire turned business success and achievement coach and guru who also wrote the acclaimed If Aristotle Ran General Motors (which is also part of my LT catalog). I mentioned LibraryThing the other day, and it is not just a cool catalog that you can create to keep track of your books. You can also use it to track books you have read that your like (or dislike) and find others who may have read or who own the same books.

Just looking at my profile, I can see that I share many books with quite a number of seminarians and other academics. So, what does this tell about me? I am neither, and work in corporate world as a sales guy! The thing is I love my job and I also love to read what I read! I guess you can say that I am an enigma!

Anyway, this latest addition to my catalog is quite an interesting read. I have just begun reading it, and already I like it. So, how do you fancy Harry Potter as CEO?

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This is pretty cool. A few years ago I decided to catalog my books. So I searched high and low for a good personal library program and could not really find one. Finally I downloaded an older program written in an obsolete version of a database fourth generation language. It worked well as a catalog (sorta) but it was not very friendly and was rather difficult to maintain.

Then, today, browsing Phil Baker’s blog, I found the LibraryThing. It is a wonderful web thingy. You can use it to catalog your books, what you’re reading, and you can even link to your reviews. What is more, you can also share with others and see who are reading or have the same books as you. It’s also quite addictive! Which means, good for bloggers, espeically those who are avid readers. And, of course, booklovers!

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Well, not really. But reading Blue Like Jazz (after only started reading the book over the weekend, I am now almost done with it) has sometimes been really uncomfortable. Like this morning. I picked up the book and read about Community. Miller described in the chapter how he hated to live with others because he is so full of himself.

As I read, his story reminds me of my own brokenness. I am in community. I live with my family. There is also a boarder in my house. I work with people around me, but oh how much I prefer to be by myself. Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: blue like jazz, donald miller, spirituality, loneliness, community, anger, relationships, fatherhood, prodigal son, father, grace

I have just gotten started reading Blue Like Jazz. I am not supposed to be reading this. Not like how I am doing anyway. I am supposed to be doing a million other things and it was supposed to be light reading. Like a couple pages a day. But I started the book a couple days ago, and now I find myself not being able to put it down. Well, I managed to yank myself from it long enough for some blog-diversion, if you know what I mean…

This guy talks about all the things that hit so close to my heart. He has already made me cry more than once (but then I cry easily and if you are a macho man with a stiff upper lip, I recommend it to you - I’ve heard that it’s good for the body and the soul), and he has made me laugh. Sometimes at the same time. But it’s different. I genuinely feel the sorrow and hillarity. At the same time. It is bizarre. I have shifted uneasily in my seat, and moaned and uttered unutterables under my breath, and sometimes over it. He is frustrating, irritating and inspiring all at the same time as he is enlightening.

He talks about Read the rest of this entry »

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Technorati Tags: book, review, must read, blue like jazz, donald miller

Interesting thought this. Considering the number of corporate leaders who misbehave badly and political leaders who often put themselves above the law, or at least, above the demands of morality, this might not such a crazy question after all.

By virtue of the responsibilities that some leaders hold, is it possible to justify their immoral acts on the basis of these unique demands or responsibilities of their position? Perhaps leaders with a consuming vision and who have access to resources and influence that can bring about massive transformation and change the world for the better face unique enough challenges to set them apart from ordinary people. So much so that they can be excused, and even justified, in deviating from the demands of morality.

Further, what if a leader have access to privileged information, say, that the country is in mortal danger, perhaps, from terrorists who do not play by the rules? Read the rest of this entry »

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One of my favorite authors have just had her latest book, Saving Fish from Drowning published. I read Tan several years ago, and got hooked on her string of novels, The Joy Luck Club, Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Saving Fish from Drowning is a departure from her other books which have a semi-autobiographical and based in either China or Chinese American contexts. In this work, Tan based her story in what is now known as Myamar with a hope of exposing to the world what a repressive country it really is. I hope this leads to a day, not too far away, when Aung San Suu Kyi is finally released and the repressive government is either overthrown or reformed.

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In case you didn’t know, Amazon is celebrating their 10th Anniversary. They are celebrating it with many fun ways, including the Wish List Give-Away. They will give you the opportunity to win everything on your wish list. The catch? You must create a new wish list between July 7 and July 16, so hurry! I did mine. I created a new Wish List and copied everything on my existing wish list (existing wish lists are not eliigible, only those that are created between those two dates will be eligible) to the new one. In case I don’t win, and you would like to buy me a consolation prize, you can view it here.

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