Greg and Amy explain how even ordinary tasks and hobbies can become acts of worship and ways to glorify God.
Transcript
Amy: This one comes from Timothy: “I know we are to give our lives to Christ. How much life-giving do we get—uh, let’s see—how much life-living do we get outside of Christ? Can we have hobbies, jobs, relaxation time, further education, other interests besides God? Can I enjoy life always worrying about this?”
Greg: Well, the answer is yes, but it’s not outside of Christ. And I think what this person is thinking is kind of a secular–sacred dichotomy. There are things that I do that are religious. So, in my religious life, that’s for Christ. Now, there are things that I do that are not religious, and God has nothing to do with that. When people think that way, they’re not suggesting—and I’m sure Timothy is not suggesting here—that they could live ungodly and pursue all these crazy things, here. But they just don’t see the connection of the rest of their life and their relationship with Christ.
When we are to give our life to Christ—the language he used—we are not giving our religious life to Christ. We’re not giving our eternal life to Christ. We’re giving our life to Christ. All of us.
Now, I’m back here this weekend recording something that’ll be probably later in June or early July. But I made a trip back from Wisconsin, where we have a place, and I have a tow vehicle and a bass boat. While I was here this week, I got some more lures in the mail, and I’m excited about using those when I go back because I caught some fish on the same lures when I was there last week, and I’m all jazzed about that. I was there with my brother, and we were jazzed. This is an area of our lives that we were enjoying. But it was an area of our lives that we enjoy that is also part of the life that God has given us. And all these areas of our lives are part of the life that God has given us, and we live under him. And that means how I comport myself in the pursuit of my hobbies—like fishing or woodworking (those are the two major hobbies—[CLEARS THROAT] pardon me—that I have)—that is still governed by my relationship with God. It doesn’t mean I’m praying over everything, that I’m praising God and hallelujah, and I’ve got to, you know, do all these religious activities. It just means my understanding is that I’m—my entire life, everything, “whether eating or drinking” is the way Paul puts it, we are doing to the glory of God.
So, not only the so-called religious elements, but the mundane, pedestrian things of life—the vulgar, in the kind of classical sense of the word, the ordinary, the down-to-earth, the plebeian-type activities—these are all things we do under the realization that all of our life belongs to God.
So, also, in these other areas, then, we’re thinking about, are there things that we’re doing in living in these other so-called secular areas that really are not consistent with—[CLEARS THROAT] and the values that are expressed in our pursuit of our interests—are they not consistent with honoring Christ? That ought to be a consideration, too. Am I pursuing my legal career or my real estate sales career or my homemaking or whatever it happens to be—am I doing this in a way that not only brings honor to God but is consistent with the things that God wants to happen?
I mean, women who are homemakers—it isn’t just like, okay, do your thing. Because being a mother and being a wife, these have—there are moral ramifications and moral obligations that pertain to these things. There are elements that we need to keep in mind that are part of our life with Christ, expressed in that relationship. So, me as a dad and as a provider for my family—those things are also under the larger umbrella of my life in Christ and are going to be informed by that. There isn’t this either/or. And what I’m not talking about is dragging, now, kind of religious language and religious stuff into all these other areas. That’s not what I mean—unless you just think that anything related to God and Jesus has got to be religious—have a religious affect to it. But that’s a mistake. It is religious in that broader sense, but it doesn’t mean it has to have a religious affect to it, and you got to be, you know, holy roller, pious about all of these things. No. You still live a down-to-earth life, as it were, but Jesus is part of all of it.
Amy: God created Adam and Eve to do things—to tend the garden, to create. That’s called the cultural mandate. God—we were created to create things and to work and to do all sorts of things. So, when you say, “I know we are to give our lives to Christ,” I just, I wonder, along the lines of what Greg has said, here, are you just picturing reading your Bible and praying? Because that—or reading books about Jesus—because, as you so well explained, Greg, that’s not the totality of what it means to be a Christian.
You know, Nancy Pearcey talks about this in Total Truth, and she talks about how Christians have failed to get a vision for whatever their profession is—how to live that as a Christian and what that means. How do we reflect God here? How do we serve others and be self-sacrificial and reflect Christ and bring good to the world and create and reflect God in all sorts of these different ways that we do as human beings, and with the knowledge that everything we’re doing is glorifying him, and he’s part of everything that we’re doing?
So, maybe, Timothy, you just need to start thinking about your life in a different way and think about how you bring glory to God in everything that you do. As you serve others, as you treat them with dignity, as you care about them more than anything else—you know, human beings—just start thinking about everything you’re doing. How does my relationship with God relate to what I’m doing now and what he’s called me to do, in terms of, you know, the commandments he’s given and his goal for the world and all those sorts of things? And everything we do works toward that.
I wish people would get a better sense of how their jobs are actually serving God. I remember one time I heard—It must have been Dan Cathy. It was someone from Chick-fil-A, but it was probably him. And he just gave a talk about how he created the systems in his store to bring dignity to his workers. And it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. And he was talking about running a chicken sandwich place! [LAUGHTER] But, honestly, I was so moved by it. It was just such a beautiful vision of reflecting God to the world through his work.
So, maybe, Timothy, you can start, kind of, brainstorming ways. And if you haven’t read Total Truth, this might be a good time to read that.
Greg: Well, I have one final suggestion on this line, and I have mentioned in the past—on the air, my own program, and maybe here—about my evening prayers. I try to have time with the Lord in the morning, and that’s really my main focus for that. But all through the day, as well, my sense of communing with God—tossing up prayers here and there, you know, as things happen, as I think of things, and even sharing my emotions and my feelings like I would share with someone else. But at night I have my evening prayers. Now, this is nothing overly formal or even overly time-consuming. But, before I go to bed, I take a knee, and I thank God for the day—that he got me through all right. And what, characteristically, I think of, and I thank him for the things that I did.
Just an insight into me—I think it’s really important to be industrious, and that’s a big part of just my work ethic, whatever. And Proverbs is big on industry too. But I find that when I’m thanking God for the things of the day—I’m just walking through, from the morning, the events of the day—the time I had with him, the people I talked to, the little things. I washed my truck. I took this thing and dropped it off at the post office. I went to see the doctor and got this taken care of. I finished this project. And I’m just going and thanking God for these particular things, or these mundane things, that brought satisfaction to me because I checked them off the list as something that I got accomplished that’s meaningful to me. Usually, I end with, then, some thoughts, some brief prayers for other individuals that I think of. And generally, that’s members of my family—my immediate family—before I climb into bed. And, look, sometimes it takes me 60 seconds. Sometimes it takes me six minutes. Sometimes maybe 10 minutes. Just depends on what’s on my heart. But I’m using that as an example, not to wave my spiritual flag or anything, but this is my attempt to kind of close the day like I started, Coram Deo—C-O-R-A-M D-E-O—Coram Deo before the Lord.
So, I start before the Lord, and I am before the Lord during the day, and then I close the day before the Lord and just say, “Hey, by the way, these things that happened—that was satisfying, that was fulfilling. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” Maybe that’s a little practice that Timothy—or anybody else—can begin to put into their life that might help them integrate the ordinary things of life into their walk with God.
Amy: God moves people into every area of our society. He wants us to be salt and light. So, don’t feel like your job is useless in his kingdom. He’s moved you there. He wants to be a presence there through you, and we can glorify him in all our work.
Do you remember that show—oh, is it still on—the Undercover Boss?
Greg: Oh, I don’t know, but I remember what it was.
Amy: That’s another show where I would watch, and I would be so moved. There was usually an employee who was such a good employee. It was just a beautiful thing to see—people who were janitors and just things that you wouldn’t think is a glorious job, but they actually brought glory into it. It was such a beautiful thing to see. And we can do that. We can be one of those people who brings glory to God through our mundane tasks, and we can make those tasks beautiful by the way we perform them.
Greg: This particular program—this worker that you’re talking about was part of a larger organization and was the boss or the head or the president or whatever that would come in unbeknownst to their environment and interact with them and see these great things—it was all filmed and everything like that—and then would reveal his role and say, “Thank you for being so faithful.” And it was very touching for that person who was on the bottom of the pecking order, so to speak, in the company—for the head would come down and condescend to encourage them. It’s a great, great Christian mentality.
So, there’s a number of things about that that relate to the point—the question that we’re dealing with right here.