Natural Activities

Regardless of the form of government, sometimes it’s hard to accept a leader’s decisions. I swear I believe I have a higher IQ than some of my elected officials. But like it or not, in Romans 13 Paul states that God establishes the governments of the world, and lawmakers are God’s servants given for the public good. God puts governmental leaders in place to maintain societal law and order.

In a broader sense, God enables each of us to contribute to the common good. All we need to do is offer our daily activities to God. So tomorrow morning make your bed before you leave for work. On the way to work resist the urge to run a single yellow light. And once you’re there, greet your coworkers and clients, students or patients with sincere joy; then serve them with real integrity.
Offer these activities to God, and God will use them to shape the world.

As C. S. Lewis once put it, “All our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest; and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not.” The key, of course, is to offer all you do to God.

So you see, God’s not only using politicians to shape the world economy. He’s using you and me to make a difference here and now. Offer your activities to God today and you’ll accomplish all that’s needed.

Calm, Not Frazzled

Some days I feel frazzled, pulled in different directions. I suppose it’s like having Attention Deficit Disorder. If I understand correctly, people who suffer with ADD are easily distracted, often act impulsively, and are at times physically restless. I’ve never been diagnosed with ADD, but I can relate to the symptoms. There are days when I catch myself trapped in the rush of life, missing what matters most, that inner peace which passes understanding. The uneasiness, the restlessness is not of God.

I know that because the prophet Zephaniah refers to God as one who creates calm with his amazing love. A calm and level-headed presence of mind is evidence of God’s love at work in us (Zephaniah 3:17).

Mrs. Thomas Edison once told Glenn Clark, “Mr. Edison is always perfectly natural and always perfectly relaxed. He feels that all of his discoveries have ‘come through him,’ that he is but a channel for forces greater than himself.”
Rest in the warmth of God’s love and your restlessness will evaporate as quickly as the morning dew.

Crushed

Isaiah tells us that God lives engrossed in holiness (Isaiah 57:15), but this doesn’t mean that God is hiding behind a veil of smoke and mystery. God is here, now; especially with the crushed and lowly. The prophet says it much better than me: ‘The one who is high and lifted up, who lives forever, whose name is holy, says: I live on high, in holiness, and also with the crushed and the lowly, reviving the spirit of the lowly, reviving the heart of those who have been crushed.’ The word translated crushed is sometimes called contrite. So even though the Creator is immersed in holiness, he is always close to people who recognize their need for mercy and grace – the remorseful, the repentant, the humble.

George MacDonald used to say, ‘The person who is proud of anything he thinks he’s reached, has not reached it. He is but proud of himself … Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they are of the same spirit as God, and of nature the kingdom of heaven is theirs.’

Check the way you hold yourself, your posture. If you’ve learned to walk through life with an unpretentious stance, God is closer to you than your fingertips.