Why I support Five Talents
Meaningful work provides more than economic rewards
By Ken and Janis Lewis
By Ken and Janis Lewis
For some who read this, the world of work will be invigorating and stimulating. They will use their job title with pride and as a source of telling the world something important about themselves. For others they may wonder what on earth we are talking about, their working experience is one of stress, anxiety, overburdening hassle and something that just has to be endured. For most of us our experience of work usually swings between the two.
For others their response might be ‘you should be so lucky, I haven’t seen work for …’. They are unemployed, long-term sick or just away from work.
Janis is a retired Occupational Therapist who worked in Mental Health and Ken has retired from working as a Counselling and Occupational Psychologist. We have seen what periods away from work can mean for some people, far from helping them to relax and take the recuperative time, they frequently become more anxious, stressed and depressed.
There seems to be clear evidence that, for human beings, being occupied with something we take pleasure in - no matter how small - and something we think we are good at no matter how humdrum, is beneficial for us. Being involved in making provision for ourselves, families and communities helps to build and develop us as people. This results in us secreting chemicals that counter depression and a tendency to positive thinking. So a helping hand towards meaningful work, provides much more than just economic rewards
There is another dimension; in the parable called Five Talents in the gospel (from which this organization takes its name), Jesus said the master gave all of his servants a talent – something to work with, no one had nothing. For us, while talent is distributed throughout humanity, opportunity may sometimes be harder to come by. We think there is no such thing as someone who is ‘dead wood’, ‘worthless’, ‘useless’, ‘ talentless’; we all have something we can be good at, even if sometimes it takes finding. It is a sin of our world to have economic and social structures that remove for some individual’s the opportunity to use their talents.
People are attracted to Five Talents for many reasons; it is a vibrant organization with a wide appeal. But our attraction to its work is not only because of issues of hunger and poverty, vitally important as they are, but because we know of the consequences of meaningful activity for people’s self-worth and wellbeing. Five Talents can give people a helping hand towards purposeful activity in their lives that evidence demonstrates will contribute to the good of their families and community. Thus not only does the virtuous circle start working, but its influence gets wider.
For others their response might be ‘you should be so lucky, I haven’t seen work for …’. They are unemployed, long-term sick or just away from work.
Janis is a retired Occupational Therapist who worked in Mental Health and Ken has retired from working as a Counselling and Occupational Psychologist. We have seen what periods away from work can mean for some people, far from helping them to relax and take the recuperative time, they frequently become more anxious, stressed and depressed.
There seems to be clear evidence that, for human beings, being occupied with something we take pleasure in - no matter how small - and something we think we are good at no matter how humdrum, is beneficial for us. Being involved in making provision for ourselves, families and communities helps to build and develop us as people. This results in us secreting chemicals that counter depression and a tendency to positive thinking. So a helping hand towards meaningful work, provides much more than just economic rewards
There is another dimension; in the parable called Five Talents in the gospel (from which this organization takes its name), Jesus said the master gave all of his servants a talent – something to work with, no one had nothing. For us, while talent is distributed throughout humanity, opportunity may sometimes be harder to come by. We think there is no such thing as someone who is ‘dead wood’, ‘worthless’, ‘useless’, ‘ talentless’; we all have something we can be good at, even if sometimes it takes finding. It is a sin of our world to have economic and social structures that remove for some individual’s the opportunity to use their talents.
People are attracted to Five Talents for many reasons; it is a vibrant organization with a wide appeal. But our attraction to its work is not only because of issues of hunger and poverty, vitally important as they are, but because we know of the consequences of meaningful activity for people’s self-worth and wellbeing. Five Talents can give people a helping hand towards purposeful activity in their lives that evidence demonstrates will contribute to the good of their families and community. Thus not only does the virtuous circle start working, but its influence gets wider.