Being Spiritual
We all need time for some spiritual reflection and self-examination. This is good for us. It keeps us balanced. Without a little bit of time for God each week, or each day if we can arrange it, we will become selfish, egocentric, disoriented on the path of life and we will not be the people God means for us to be. This is how it should work: I set aside some time for God and I become a better person.
This is how it should work, but it’s not how it does work. Jesus clearly explained how we move ahead spiritually when He said: “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:37-39)
We don’t become the people God wants us to be by ensuring that we carve out an hour or two a week for Him and then ignore Him the rest of the time. God calls us to put Him first - ahead of our dearest family members, even those for whom we are materially responsible, and ahead of ourselves, that is our own aspirations, goals, dreams, and desires. Furthermore, we are not only to lay those aside for Him, but he calls us to take up His own cause. Only when we lose our own life, will we find the life He offers us.
So how does this work? We all have responsibilities. People count on us. Surely God isn’t suggesting that we irresponsibly abandon those who need us, even for their physical sustenance. Somebody has to change the diapers, cook the food, wash the dishes, clean the house, shovel the snow or cut the grass, do some work for pay, buy the stuff we need to live and so on. Then there are friends who need our attention and likely other kinds of responsibilities to fulfill. Even with a partnership where the tasks are shared more or less equitably, we wouldn’t have half a life to give to God, so how do we give it all to Him?
I believe that it’s an attitude issue. For example, when you get up in the morning, you have some family responsibilities to take care of. You can either look at these as tasks or chores or duties or something like that, or you can look at them as an opportunity to bring God into your home. So whether or not you say the words or even think them consciously, your attitude, expressed as a prayer is, “God, look at these people in my home who need to see you today. So as we’re getting started, I’m going to be You to them. I’ll be kind and affectionate and generous and helpful. I’ll do more than my share. I’ll accommodate them and make sacrifices for them so that they’ll start the day by seeing You in me.”
And when you go to work, you don’t go there just to make money for yourself, or widgets for the company. You go to work to make life better for other people. You might say, “God, anybody looking at me would think that I’m making widgets, or teaching children, or shuffling paper, or tending to clients, or making sales, or being creative, but the fact is, I’m doing this job for you. I want to do the best I can because you’re the best boss there is and I’m partnering with you to build into the lives of the people who are affected by my efforts.”
And when lunchtime comes and you’re eating with your colleagues, it isn’t just about nourishing your body so you can do more work and get paid more money. It’s about an opportunity to bring God into your workplace, into the lives of your workmates. Now they may or may not enjoy the presence of God that you bring to the table, that’s another matter, but you’re there as God’s representative. To state it more strongly, if you’re a Christian, you are really God incarnate in that circle of influence.
I’m guessing you don’t need more help to see that while the superficial outward appearance may not change dramatically, the motivation may be entirely different. Don’t be deceived into thinking that this doesn’t matter. It does, for a couple of reasons. One is that God sees your heart and He takes into account your reason for doing what you do as well as the actions themselves. That’s why Jesus could point at the most committed religious leaders of His day and say to His followers “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20)
The other is that sooner or later, people will start to see through you. External behaviours only go so far. People will notice the subtle things that are left out when we serve them because we see these things as nothing more than tasks or chores that we are obliged to carry out because of external expectations. When that happens, we can start preparing to kiss those relationships good-bye.
If life, especially your spiritual life, isn’t working the way you think it should, remember that Jesus calls us to put Him first. If He is somewhere further down the priority list, He’s not in the place He should be and there’s better than even odds that that is why your life is falling short.
