The other day, I passed a church sign that read, "Where is God on your 'To Do' list? Check your priorities." While I think the emphasis of the message is that we need to have our priorities straight, especially our relationship with God, I also think the sign reveals a mindset among many that God is one part of our life among many others.
I grew up in a church culture that separated life into "secular" and "sacred." Things like church activities, "quiet time," witnessing, etc. were sacred. Things like school , work, and play were secular. While we were still told to "keep a good testimony" during those activities, they were seen as less important than the "spiritual" ones. Over the years, I saw many examples of this, from preachers asking us to compare the amount of time we spent in church activities with the amount of time doing other things, to players and coaches in church athletic leagues arguing with officials. There was a clear distinction made between the things that were "spiritual" and everything else.
That way of thinking creates a view that God is an item on a to do list, something to be checked off and then left while we go on to other things. I don't believe that Scripture supports that. We are told to seek the Kingdom of God first. I think that means more than just saying hello to God in the morning. The Kingdom of God is the place where God's rule is present. That should be every area of our life, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Jesus Christ is Lord, he is King. We are not someday going, "to be there when they crown him King of Kings." He is that now and therefore all of life is under his rule. Our duty and privilege is to bring that rule to bear as we go about our day-to-day activities.
For the follower of Jesus, there is no secular. All of life is sacred. God is not on our to do list. He is the list. God is not one priority among many. He is our only priority. If we seek the Kingdom and God's righteousness first, all of our other needs will be provided, including the grace and wisdom for the things we deal with each day.
2 comments:
Great stuff Co.. I always got a lot of ego strokes from checking off things on my list.. maybe that is part of the appeal to seeing God as a item to be checked off?
Bob, thanks for the comment. I think we all get strokes from checking things off our list. It definitely give us a sense of accomplishment. Of course that can be dangerous when we're talking about our relationship with God.
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