OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER - ISSUE 32 - MAR 2007 How are you doing with the nitty-gritty details of your life? We get bogged down in them sometimes, don’t we? We have aspirations, ideals, and visions for what we want to be and what we want to do; yet, the details of living day-by-day seem to get in the way of the lofty goals we want to reach. In his book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Eugene Peterson speaks to this issue. He recalled a time in his life when he felt he had to trudge through his “to do” list in order to have time for the more significant things in life such as focus on God and the spiritual life. At some point, he came to realize that the most significant things in life often were encompassed by the seemingly trivial tasks on his “to do” list. He says it this way, “In my hurry to recover the essentials of spirituality in my life – a sense of the presence of God, a spacious leisure for savoring grace - I had thrown away the raw material for it, my list. The items that I thought were interfering with the holiness of my vocation were the very materials of its holiness.” (p. 151) That statement captured me because I often find myself exactly in the place Peterson described. We all know that there are times that we need to be quiet before God in waiting, in enjoying His presence, and in participating in intentional acts of worship. But the entirety of our lives will be spiritual and meaningful to the extent that we find the same kind of interaction with the holy in our every day duties. And that’s exactly what the Bible tells us to do, most particularly in Colossians 3:17 which says, “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.” That passage tells us that whether we are speaking or doing (even the lowly jobs on our “to do” list), we are to sanctify that speech or those actions as if Jesus Himself were saying those words or doing those deeds. We are to talk and to act in His name. And, all the while, we are to be giving thanks to God. How can anything on our “to do” list be trivial or meaningless if we are doing it in the name of Jesus? And how can we have anything but a positive attitude while we are going about even the most mundane of tasks if we are thanking God all the while we are working? You see, the significance of what we say or do is not in the words or actions themselves, but in the meaning instilled in them by the only One qualified to know the eternal importance of any task we perform or words that we say. So, the next time we change the baby’s diaper or change the oil in the car, the next time we clean up the garage or clean up spilled milk, the next time we speak to the grocery bagger or confess to the parish priest, the next time we correct a defiant two-year-old or counsel an unhappy spouse, we must remember to sanctify our actions by doing every single thing in the name of Jesus. We must allow Him to live His life, His values, His truth, His eternality through us in the “to do” lists of our lives.
When we do that, all of life is sanctified, full of purpose, and of eternal significance. Why settle for anything less? While we especially treasure the quiet times of contemplation, study, and prayer, every moment throughout our days is filled with the meaning infused in it by the presence of our Lord. Let’s keep our eyes open to His holy infiltration of our minutes, hours, and days. There is nothing ordinary in a life that is devoted to Jesus. Now, let’s get to those lists! |
