Service in the World = Spiritual Service

Post 4

Genesis 1:31 God saw all that He had made, and it was very good.

Yesterday I emphasized the goodness of God’s world and its values in His eyes. Apart from celebration, there is another reason for emphasizing this point at the beginning of our journey. When you have a spiritual contempt for this world or you think God is not very interested in it, you will not understand your proper task in it. It will be hard to understand God’s concern for the things of this world and His love for His entire creation. You will not feel the push to make it a better place. You will not feel the need to improve it and will regard those who spend themselves in working in this world as being busy with things of secondary importance. You will see their work as inferior to that of those whose work is more "spiritual" in nature. You will think that the real servant of God is not she who works in a government office or he who drives a taxi. The real servant of God is the church worker, especially the pastor and evangelist.

The perspective just described is very common among Christians—and as wrong as it is common. If you want to know how to serve God, you must know the meaning of the creation from God’s point of view. Being wrong here will almost guarantee that your entire life will be wrong.

As you continue this journey with me, you will be exploring spiritual service in a worldly or earth(l)y way. This may do two things for you. First, it will help you realize the importance and the meaning of your work, however menial or boring you may have found it till now. Secondly, it will help you find joy in your work. It will become both more meaningful and joyful. How many people can say that about their "worldly" job?