Colossians
3:16 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
It is an hour before dinner. The third load of laundry for day is
drying. The report that was due last
week is up in one window on my computer.
The report due tomorrow is in another window. My kid is over at his friend’s and is
probably getting stoned. This blog is in
the third window I have open. I am
wondering what to cook along with the chicken breasts for dinner.
Then it happens – some inane quote about
letting my life exist solely for the greater glory of God goes floating
hostilely through my mind. Suddenly I know
what to do. I get a pad of paper and a
pen and write to Wanna and Joey. I
explain that although I love them, God has bigger and better things for me to
do, dinner is in the oven, the last load of laundry is not folded but dried, and
I am off to preach the gospel to the unsquashed hamsters of Nepal.
I chuckle.
I also reflexively duck out of the way of the swat that God surely
intends for me.
If you didn’t already know I am an
addict. I am in recovery, that is I have
stopped using drugs, yet I am still an addict.
Narcotics Anonymous defines an addict as a man or woman who decided that
they had to have something different in life.
It goes on to say we thought we had found it in drugs, but the
underlying issue is we thought we had to have something different in life.
The entire thinking of moving to Nepal to
preach to hamsters, regardless of how well intended, regardless of how grounded
in scripture, feels like addiction to me.
It smacks of “Life sucks and I want it to be different.” Life can be a struggle, monotonous, boring,
(insert favourite adjective here), and the antithesis of the jest of the entire
self-help movement. The move to Nepal is
a fix.
Then I remember who Jesus is, of the night
he washed the feet of those who loved him and that he loved. He was of service to those in his life. I have written about this act. He didn’t go out of the upper room to seek
others to service, he stayed with those who he knew and loved.
Calvin, not the guy who hangs out with
Hobbes, but the theologian wrote of a concept of Total Depravity. The idea that our separation from God, that
our fallen nature, our self seeking and self-centred ways affects
everything. The terminology has suffered
over the years because we tend to think of Total Depravity as an absolute loss
of morals or ethics.
I think of it as more of that subtle and
pervasive tendency that I have to be an idiot.
That any situation that arises in my life I can respond by
misinterpreting and acting in haste only to cringe at what I have done later; and
it is amazing the situations that I have done that in. It is also that ever constant view of the
world of what is in it for me.
But there I am, in my kitchen, washing
lettuce for the salad, thinking about how all I do can be for the glory of
God. I wonder what Jesus wants for
dinner. Does have a load of
laundry? Do they do laundry in
heaven? I know according to the
Religious Right they all wear clothes so nakedness would not be tolerated. The assertion that nakedness is not allowed
in Heaven does give me a moment of pause.
My next post, and yes it is just like me to
rush, is on glorifying God. Not to spoil
it, but glorifying God has much more to do with our state of mind and the
inclination of our hearts, than it does with the acts of worship we confine to
churches. And to steal a concept and
distort it for my purposes, I think, all acts of love and joy are acts of
worship.
There are two people that I love intensely,
four if you add my brother and his wife, but the top two are my wife and my
kid. They are the ones that I, or God,
or the shifting sands of time, have moved into my life. They are the ones that God wants me to love
and care for the most.
This evening, I fold clothes as an act of
worship. I finish the report due last
week as a means of glorifying God. The
potatoes I bake are done with prayers that those who eats them may walk closer
to God, as well as the broccoli and salad.
This blog, I do so that you may be encouraged to find what God wants for
you.
Matthew
11:28, 29 & 30
28
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light.”
I do think there are those that are called
to pick up roots and go to distant places and spread the Good News. There are also those that are called to put
down what they are doing and go and be of service. The rest of us, you and me, are called to a
nobler missionary field, our family, our neighbourhood, and our community.
As for letting every act be for the glory
of God? Well, let what I do be for the
service and benefit of others, and thus for the glory of God.
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