The Puritans wisely sought to connect all of life to its source in God, bringing the two worlds together rather than dividing them into sacred and secular. They had a saying, “God loveth adverbs; and careth not how good, but how well.” Adverbs describe verbs—our words of action and activity. The proverb implies that God cares more about the spirit in which we live than the concrete results.
Pleasing God doesn’t mean that we must busy ourselves with a new set of “spiritual” activities. As the Puritans said, whether cleaning house or preaching sermons, shoeing horses or translating the Bible, any human activity may constitute an offering to God.
We spend much time immersed in the mundane. “But we have the mind of Christ,” Paul reminds us (1 Cor. 2:16). That truth is to guide everything we do. Caring for an elderly parent. Cleaning up after a child. Sitting on a porch with a neighbor. Fielding a customer’s complaint. Filling out patient charts at a nurses’ station. Sitting in traffic. Sawing lumber. Reporting tips. Shopping for groceries.
We need faith and the mind of the Lord Jesus to recognize something of lasting value in even our most ordinary tasks. — Philip Yancey
In the common round of duty
Lift thy heart in praise;
For the Lord hath surely promised
Strength for all thy days. —Tovey
The world crowns success; God crowns faithfulness!
The relevant reading is Colossians 3:8-17:
8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And 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.
Reflections:
Indeed, as what was quoted above, even while doing the most ordinary tasks everyday, we should be praising God, for He provides us strength to execute the tasks, calmness so that we will be able to complete the tasks and wisdom to carry out everything. It's only at times that I am conscious about the fact that actually I am able to do certain things which people want to but are unable to. For this alone, I should be grateful and appreciating God's grace rather than frowning over what I can't do, in aspects of life which maybe I'm not so gifted at.
The proverb reminded me that God looks more at our spiritual life and our thoughts, rather than how high we can achieve in various things. To me, "But we have the mind of Christ" is a strong verse, as this is a thing which often doesn't seem unusual when it comes to quiet time, devotions, cell, church and bible study. However, when I'm doing all other daily chores, it frequently just slips through my mind. In fact, I think I should let God guide me more in a lot of things in life (Colossians 3:11 But Christ is all, and is in all), including what I speak and how I act, especially when the words which come out of my mouth or actions which I take can make different impacts on people around me. (e.g. while talking to people or respond to what people say)
Like what Steph reminded me yesterday (if I'm not mistaken, in the editted draft), everyone's imperfect. (she put it in a way that everyone sins) what we can do is to grow more and more into a person which God favours us to be, and this is also what we should be doing, through all the small small things in life everyday, led by God. Once again, I recalled the need to be faithful enough that we can surrender everything absolutely to Him, knowing that He has good plans for us and not to harm us. We need to be faithful also to trust that He is being faithful to us, in that He's not going to abandon or forsake us. =)
yee kuan
2 comments:
Good reflection! =p Likey likey!
I think the daily bread is much better. Not to say daily inspirations is bad. But I also like the devotion today. =) Continue to grow more and more into the person God favours you to be and not what you want to be. =)
Haha, I got what you mean =P At least the daily bread provides both a single verse which is kind of the main message of the devotion and also a paragraph to refer to, which helps to understand and meditate more =P Yup yup! =D
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