Knights of Columbus: God's Mission for Man

I am a Knight of Columbus. (This sounds weird, but it is an international Catholic service organization that has a chapter at our parish in Warrenton).

The Knights wanted to put together a series of videos to present a Christian perspective on the dignity of work, the dignity of humans in work, and the context for how to understand work and what it means to be human - and they asked me to be a part of the video! We are featured in the video entitled: God's Mission for Man.

Of course you can watch the whole thing, but you can also skip to where we come in at 3:50. And, of course, this might not totally jive with your perspective, but I thought this was a good representation of the Christian perspective. Hopefully this helps you understand where I am coming from as we try our hardest to raise food that is healthy for the land, the animals, and you, our customers! Some important points that I think are worth highlighting:

• Work is about stewardship - caring for what we have been given. Caring for ourselves, our families, our community while we are caring for the soil, plants, animals, water, and air. (Yes! We want to do that at Whiffletree!)
• Work is about building up the common good and respecting human dignity. (Yes! We want to do that at Whiffletree! I am thinking about food and farming that heal the body and the land!)
• Our bodies are good, and engaging our bodies in physical work is good. (Yes! I KNOW this is true--ha!)
• Work entails suffering sometimes--stress, disappointments, mistakes, bad weather, etc.--but it is fundamentally a noble project. (Yes! I know this is true--the recent ice and frigid weather comes to mind--eesh!)
• Work has to be in balance with rest and leisure. While humans are really cool workers, we are not JUST workers. We were made to connect deeply with the true, good, and beautiful in deep friendship with others and God, especially through conversation, stories, art, music, being in nature, and worship.

Again, thank you for watching and hearing me out. I hope this helps you better understand why I am so excited to raise food that is healthy for the land, the animals, and YOU!

Jesse Straight