what do you use these for?
I recently read an article by a nurse, Kamalini Kumar, entitled "Work as Worship" that talked about how our weekday work (and other work) is a significant context in which we offer worship to God. That article (footnoted below)^1 had a number of interesting points, but I just want to focus on one illustration in it. It is a story told of some body-builders on a television talk show^2
They were showing off their muscles when the host asked, "What do you use these muscles for?" One man answered by flexing his muscles in one of those body-building poses.
"No, you don't understand me," said the host. "What do you use these muscles for?"
The body builder answered, "I'll show you," and flexed again, posing another way.
"No, no, you still don't understand what I'm asking. What do you use them for?" and the guy posed again.
Kumar goes on to comment that many Christians are like those body-builders. We come to worship, Bible study, Sunday school, and other church events and keep training and building up our spiritual muscles. But then we don't use them for the reason God created them.
As we talked about this past Sunday, we DO come to church and worship to be built up spiritually. But we also come to worship which is to serve and obey God with our praises and spiritual muscles. And we are SENT OUT as "salt and light" into the world as "leaven" to carry the transforming word and Spirit of God with us. Each of you has a unique "mission field" that involves your workplace, school, neighborhood, family, friends, and many other places you go. As you have conversations, as you work, as you shop, and as you build relationships, consider where God fits into your life and how the Good News of Jesus Christ can be woven into those experiences.
Psalm 90:17 says, "Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; and confirm for us the work of our hands; yes, confirm the work of our hands." (NASB)
May God give you a vision for worshiping Him through your work and everything else you do as you use your "spiritual muscles!"
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1 Kamalini Kumar, Work as Worship in Journal of Christian Nursing, Volume 16, Number 2 (Madison, WI: Intervarsity Press, 1999). Article was found online at: www.intervarsity.org/ncf/jcn/archive/99sp/kumar.html
2 Tim Hansel, Holy Sweat (Dallas: Word, 1987), 26-28.