Tearing Down the Sacred vs. Secular Stronghold
“We should fix ourselves firmly in the presence of God by conversing all the time with Him...we should feed our soul with a lofty conception of God and from that derive great joy in being his. We should put life in our faith. We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike, and find contentment in the doing of His will, whether he takes us through sufferings or consolations.”[1]
This advice comes from a short book written by Brother Lawrence called The Practice of the Presence of God. In this book, Brother Lawrence describes his insatiable desire to have intimate communion with God in all his daily activities no matter how mundane they may be.
This is especially vital to the 21st-century believer as we are inundated with so many tasks and activities that would initially be penned “unspiritual.” Cleaning the house, cooking dinner, giving the car an oil change, etc. are all basic activities that are vital to our day-to-day existence.
But what if we were able to look at these routine chores not merely as secular responsibilities but instead as spiritual undertakings? What if we truly lived out the Scripture “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31)? How would our perception change if we decided to even scrub the toilet with an attitude set on glorifying the Most High?
The Laity vs. Clergy Fallacy
In the same way, the laity/clergy divide must be abolished, so too does the holy/secular gulf need to be removed. Let me describe what I mean. The church has held an erroneous view that some people are called to full-time ministry while others merely pay their way as observers.
Here, the term “full-time ministry” refers to an individual devoted to some religious occupation as a means of their livelihood. There is nothing wrong with this, and many people are called to this type of career. But unfortunately, this viewpoint has caused an unhealthy understanding of how clergy and laity relate to one another.
There is a sense that people in a religious occupation are doing the “real” work of the ministry while the rest are left only to help fund their endeavors. Christians see themselves as going to their typical secular job in order to feed their family and fund the kingdom.
Before I go any further, I can’t overstate how important the giver’s role is to the body of Christ. These people are essential members who mightily engage in the work of the gospel. The funding they provide is precious to the church, but that cannot be where their focus ends in contributing to the kingdom.
You see, we are all actually in full-time ministry. Just because one person spends their time preparing sermons and leading a congregation does not make them any more “full-time ministers” than the man who heads off to engage in his craft at a construction site.
The missionary who gives their life for an unreached people group is just as much in full-time ministry as the stay-at-home mother of three. We need to break this religious/secular divide in how we view ministry assignments.
The Sacred vs. Secular Fallacy
This conclusion also relates to how we view our responsibilities. The way society and the church view daily activities quickly reveal the sacred/secular divide in our thinking. I will use myself as an example. I often feel I am engaging in much holier and more productive activities when I am doing something in relation to the ministry. I see the time involved in this work as somehow superior to the routine day-to-day tasks that I am required to do as a father, husband, and citizen of my country.
Even in the work of the ministry itself, I find greater value in studying the Scriptures and preparing teachings compared to the time I spend looking over the ministry’s financials or answering emails. At first glance, it may appear that the first endeavors do indeed carry a more holy and “kingdom-productive” nature than the others. But to view things this way is to have a skewed perspective on the victorious Christian life.
A fruitful Christian life involves doing “all things” for the glory of God regardless of whether they appear to be “holy.” We are responsible for engaging in each task God has prepared for us. There is a time and place for everything, and we cannot wholly neglect one assignment as we pursue another.
Unfortunately, this behavior has been significantly abused in church leadership. With his many responsibilities and large flock to attend to, the pastor often neglects his superior call to be a present husband and father. Christian leaders get a pass in this arena because they are “doing the work of the ministry.”
The lie goes that these influential men and women should not be distracted by the needs of their 5-member family when their 500-member church requires attention. Oh, how we have gotten our priorities backward.
I can describe this mentality because I have wrestled with it myself. Even today, when faced with the decision to mow the lawn or continue writing, my internal barometer concluded that discipling people through my writing is far more worthwhile than mowing the lawn.
But if I neglect my responsibility to cut the grass, soon it would become too high for my kids to play in the yard. The eyesore of the lawn would become an embarrassment and frustration to my wife. In making this one simple decision to do what feels more “spiritual,” I would be dishonoring my family. In this scenario, I bring more glory to God by mowing my lawn than I do in engaging in any other so-called “Christian activity.”
There Are No Insignificant Moments!
Understanding this point brings us to a fantastic realization. Every moment of our life is valuable! There are not some activities that are spiritually superior to others (sinful activities obviously being omitted in this discussion). This means that the time I spend cooking dinner, cleaning the house, doing laundry, and changing my toddlers’ diaper is no more spiritual than the time I spend in prayer, reading the word, preparing a teaching, etc.
Someone may argue, “Tyler, are you saying that taking out the trash and spending time in prayer has the same spiritual value in God’s eyes?” My answer to this is a resounding yes! The key is to do what God has called you to do when you are supposed to do it. This may seem like a bizarre and maybe even blasphemous conclusion, but I believe it is true!
Now for most of us, spending time in prayer and reading the word will create a closer connection to God than vacuuming the carpet. In an ideal world, we would keep the same heightened union with our Creator regardless of what we were doing (I imagine that heaven will be this way).
But realistically, perfect consistency in communion is not possible in our present earthly bodies. I am not saying that everything we do has the same outcome on our connection with the Lord. I am saying that we do not need to feel guilty as we engage in some of this world’s necessary responsibilities.
Doing the Right Thing at the Wrong Time is Still the Wrong Thing
Before I move on, I want to be very clear. I am not giving you a license to forsake things like prayer, reading the Word, worship, Christian fellowship, etc. because you have become too busy with other activities. Most believers in the western church spend far too little time getting alone to engage with God. We have become a money and comfort-driven culture, even within a lot of the church.
In our flesh, it is far more appealing to put in a few extra hours of work for a bigger paycheck or to lounge around binging Netflix than it is to engage in prayer and reading the word. Just because each of our activities has an equal value at the moment we are called to do them does not mean that we are engaging in them the way God is asking us to.
The application of this truth is that we do not have to feel guilty for taking an hour to go for a run instead of using that hour to be in concentrated prayer. Exercise has immense spiritual value in that it helps to keep the body healthy and active. Your prayer life will actually suffer if your body is unhealthy.
Do you see how all these components of life work together to help us fulfill our God-given calling? By tearing down the sacred/secular divide as we engage in our daily activities, we can truly “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
How the Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary
Brother Lawrence reminds us that it is the condition of the heart that makes the act pleasing to God: “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”[2] Or what about the 40 hours per week that most devote to a secular job? Imagine if we truly viewed our careers with the mindset Paul describes,
Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve (Colossians 3:23-24).
If this became our outlook, we would soon discover how ordinary responsibilities are avenues to meet with God. Our everyday life would be transformed as we devoted every moment to unhindered communion with Jesus. Not only would the quality of our work be exponentially improved, but our hearts would also be filled to the brim as we used every opportunity with a motive to serve Jesus.
In closing, meditate on Brother Lawrence’s assurance that in Christ we truly live and move and have our being. Ask God to show you how you could begin to live out the mundane details of your life with this kind of awareness of His presence.
“Do not be discouraged by the resistance you will encounter from your human nature; you must go against your human inclinations. Often, in the beginning, you will think that you are wasting time, but you must go on, be determined and persevere in it until death, despite all the difficulties.”[3]
[1] Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” Goodreads (website), accessed February 18, 2016, http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/219796-we-should-fix-ourselves-firmly-in-the-presence-of-god
[2] Brother Lawrence, “The Practice of the Presence of God,” Goodreads (website), accessed February 18, 2016, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2133549-the-practice-of-the-presence-of-god
[3] Ibid.