Love what you do. Do what you love.

At church on Sunday, our little group had “discussion.” I’m still thinking about it, so I thought I would post and extend the thought process. The topic we ended up discussing is an ad slogan from some clothing company. It says, “Love what you do; do what you love.” At first, it seemed like a positive statement and we set out trying to discern what exactly that looks like. If I could do what I love, what would that look like? I started thinking about my hobbies – photography, cooking, reading,… Strangely, or maybe not, I have a fear of doing/focusing on any of those things. My fear is that I will lose enjoyment of these activities if they become my primary concern. In American culture it seems we have associated the word “love” with “pleasure/fun.” We’ve even carried this into relationships, which could help to explain the rising divorce rate. Since when has love ever equaled pleasure or fun? I mean, sometimes that is what comes out of it, but it is by no means always that way. That idea gives love a very selfish definition. We would end up living completely consumed by what we want and enjoy. Although those "hobbies" are good and healthy to commit time to, it would be horrible to shut out other things for that.

So if we step outside of American culture, and look at this statement, what does it look like? And once we establish a picture of that statement, are we succeeding? As individuals, are we loving what we do, and doing what we love?