Shalom Seeking: Contours for Flourishing

Jesus instructs us to seek first the kingdom of God (Matt 6:33) [1], which is no small task. Seeking the Kingdom is a process of striving to show God’s love by loving our neighbors and to the rest of the creation. It is serving them by enabling them to flourish. Seeking first the kingdom of God is striving for true progress in all its wholeness; it is seeking shalom. Shalom is an Old Testament word which refers to the restfulness, contentment, beauty, and harmony of life lived together in perfect obedience to God’s will. Shalom is a state of being in which everyone and everything is in right relationship all the time. The call to seek shalom, which includes our work as engineers, is no less than a call to lovingly meet the technological needs around us with the goal of flourishing the whole of creation. This paper begins digging into the details of what it means to flourish and to be an instrument of flourishing through our work as engineers. Striving to seek shalom through our engineering work requires insights into how people and the rest of creation flourish, individually, but also in relationship with each other. Seeking first the kingdom of God requires knowledge of the Kingdom and our role in it. Therefore, I strive to develop a biblically-based and creationally-informed understanding of the basic contours of flourishing that can serve as the beginnings of a meaningful guide for living and engineering before the face of God (coram Deo).