For this week's assignment I chose What Shall I Do with My Life? by Howard Thurman. Howard was born in Florida and was raised through out his poverty stricken childhood by his grandmother. He was a pastor in San Francisco and a Dean at Boston University. He was committed to non-violence, and his commitment influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and many other civil rights leaders. Thurman answers the two questions from this section differently. The first question is how do I simply live as a Christian, and the second question is, is my life's work a "calling" or a "job?" To the first question Thurman responds by writing that Jesus throws a shaft of light across the pathway of those who ask the question, "What shall I do with my life?" (pg 388). The second question Thruman does not really answer, but it could be construed that when Thurman writes "Feed the hungry? Yes, and always. But I must know that man is more than his physical body. There is something in him that calls for beauty and comradeship and righteousness," he is talking about a person's work as a "calling" instead of a "job."
In this sermon, Howard Thurman talks about the three temptations of Jesus. He has a few mainpoints about the third temptation. The first is that Jesus' passion is "to bring society under the acknowledged judgement of God and thereby insure its purification" (pg 387). His next point is that the Devil shocks Jesus by bringing him to the realization that the Devil created the relationships between men and not God. Another point is what he says that Jesus does with this significant fact. He writes, "Jesus subsequently cautioned his disciples, 'Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves. You must be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves" (pg 387-388). These are all good points that Thurman makes because they all apply to us as Christians in today's world.
Thurman also writes about Christianity in the public square in this sermon. He says the world can become good when all men individually become good (pg 388). He also writes that men's good deeds become tainted by the evil framework of their relationships (pg 388). These two things point that the only way that society can become good is to save the souls of men (pg 388). Here Thurman comes to the conclusion that without Christianity the public square has no chance of ever being good.

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