September 24th, 2019

People sometimes say that they want to be “more spiritual.” I understand what they mean; they want to have a closer relationship with God and not be so caught up in the cares and demands of the world. Being in a close relationship with God is a good thing, but if I read my bible right, God is not interested at all in “spirituality.” Instead, He just wants you to be the human being He has created you to be!

Eugene Peterson’s translation of the bible called The Message captures this thought in Romans 12:1-2. “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out.”

Your everyday, ordinary, walking around life – sleeping, eating, going to work – is what God is interested in. Here’s a prayer to help you ask God to be right smack dab in the middle of that life today.

“Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us. We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone. Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.” (From A General Thanksgiving – BCP p. 836)