As to the Lord

Let me ask you this question.

Is the item or the philosophy behind it what is important? This is a question that the Holy Spirit asked me a while back. Now before I can continue I need to expand the question.One of my interests is woodwork, and it is an interest that I am taking more and more seriously. Now I could look at it and approach it task for task. As in here is a project and just do the project. The same with my work here is a section of code or a new feature for the application and I just do it project for project.

Or I could define a philosophy stemming from who I am and what I believe. Then I work from that philosophy when I work so that people who look at the final product are aware if not consciously that there is something more to the article that what meets the eye.

Now I am not taking about just good craftsmanship or someone taking a lot of care and pride in their work that is nice to see but the item it still does not speak about the one who made it.

This morning I want to expand on this concept because I am sure it is new to most of you. Then I want to define an apostolic framework that can help us define a philosophy for our own work.

To help you understand the concept I am going to look a group of people called the Shakers and their woodwork and then other two woodworkers.
The Shakers
Founded by a Manchester woman Ann Lee and eight followers who sailed to the New World in 1774 to escape religious persecution. The Shakers achieved a social order based on equality, sharing and personal anonymity. From a modern perspective it is hard to understand this pervasive selflessness,
yet Shakerism flourished spiritually and economically. By the time of the Civil War almost six thousand souls lived in eighteen communities scattered from Main to Southwest Kentucky.

The Shaker philosophy of simple, celibate, communal living was strictly observed by 'Families' who established a definite pattern of work and devotion strictly observed the Shaker philosophy of simple, celibate, communal living. Mother Ann's advocacy of 'Hands to work and hearts to God' was followed by all the members even the smallest children who were fully occupied at all times except times of worship. A reverence for perfection in work, characterised their lives. This led to a high level of craftmanships the overriding characteristics of which was unity and simplicity. Ornamentation of any sort was considered as vanity and useless ostentation.

The Civil War saw a significant decline in the prosperity of the Shaker communities. Although cleared of the obligation of bearing arms, their land and buildings were torn apart by the marauding armies, and war losses were never recouped. The Industrial Age that swept across America also brought factories and mass production techniques with which the Shakers simple provincial industries could not compete. They were after all agriculturalists and hand craftsmen and women. Prospective converts were also increasingly drawn to the bustle of the growing cities, away from the quiet farms and villages that were the essence of Shaker life.

By the 1870's, the membership had dwindled to 2,500 and at the turn of the century whole communities had been discontinued. Today the surviving few Shakers residing at Canterbury New Hampshire and Sabbathday Lake Maine function only as custodians of the movement which tried, by striving for perfection in their lives, to create heaven on Earth.

Why the name “Shakers” well because they used to shake during there services!

The legacy that they left behind was not so much a spiritual one, but rather one of furniture. There is a style of woodwork known today as Shaker. When looking through magazines to get ideas for our alterations I often came across captions saying a “Shaker” kitchen. Yet the Shakers never build kitchens like that. What they mean is that the kitchens are designed and build along the same lines as the Shaker furniture.

So what is so special about Shaker furniture? I quote form a woodwork book “Most Shaker” by Norm Abram. Shaker furniture embodies the values of the craftsmen who made it – spiritual people who saw work as an aspect of worship. They put a bit of their soul into everything they made. Even utilitarian wooden objects like shovels, spoons and boxes have a subtle, quite beauty about them – a beauty that is rooted in the function of the piece.

Sam Maloof

Sam Maloof, born in 1916, is America's most widely admired contemporary furniture craftsman. Maloof, entirely self-taught, is one of only a handful of furniture designer-craftsmen to make his livelihood through working full time with his hands. Although his furniture has a sculptural quality and has been exhibited in major museums, he doesn't consider himself an artist, but rather a woodworker, and lets it go at that.
Maloof's distinctive furniture style has developed slowly and steadily over decades. New designs evolve from existing ones. As a result, his furniture has a timeless, classic look, its form directly related to its intended function. Evolution, not revolution, is the hallmark of his style.

He left a job as a graphics designer when he was thirty to make a living out of woodwork. He found a piece of land, built a house and workshop then started making furniture. From a small beginning he made furniture not for the market, but because it was he enjoyed doing.

His furniture is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery, the White House and the homes of former presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. 25 years ago he sold a dining room set for $3 000 resold recently for $150 000.

“Sam’s furniture embodies intangible qualities that transcend the sensory delights of sight and touch” Jonathan Fairbanks, the curator of American decorative arts and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Doing what Sam loves making about 50 pieces of furniture a year for 50 years. His chairs have the curving grace of a parabola, then embracing comfort of loving arms and the tactile sensuality of supple skin, They look and feel like living creatures, not pieces of wood connected by dowel and glue and joint, but single, seamless waves of wood.

Sam once watched as the blind blues man Ray Charles caressed a piece of the furniture and announced it had “soul”. Sam likes that story because soul is a place beyond words where hand, head and humanity blur. “You cannot have soul without sincerity” he says.

Now I told you about his work I want to give you some insight into the man by way of a couple of quotes.

“People say, work must be the most important thing in your life, and I say ‘But it isn’t. First comes God, then my family, my friends, my work in that order’. Without my family and friends, I would have no interest in work.

'The reverence that the object maker has for the materials, for the shape, and for the miracle of his skill transcends to God, the Master Craftsman, the Creator of all things, who uses us, our hands, as His tools to make these beautiful things.'

'We marvel and exclaim about the machine, and yet nothing has been designed or made, nor ever will be, as wondrous as the hands of man. What it produces has no element of surprise or feeling that an object made by hand may have. It leaves no room for change.'
'There’s a lot of work being done today that doesn’t have any soul in it. The technique may be the utmost perfection, yet it is lifeless. It doesn’t have a soul. I hope my furniture has a soul to it.'

As beautiful as it appears, a Maloof rocking chair is remarkably c