This entry continues a week-long series from guest blogger Doug Lee on whole life worship.
Worship in the everyday ordinary is just that: being able to worship God with our daily lives, in our work, our school, our driving, in the marketplace. Worship of God can be a 24-7 thing. There are three great historical models for worship in the everyday ordinary.
Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God saw every act as a response to God’s mercy. Whether doing the dishes or peeling the potatoes, every act is infused with prayer.
Jean-Pierre de Caussade’s Sacrament of the Present Moment encourages us to make every moment a holy moment by inviting in the presence of God. We are to eliminate the idea of sacred and secular, and instead invite the sacred into the ordinary. Sometimes in a time of crisis or tension the last thing we think of doing is praying, but by doing so we can renew our minds, make something profane into something wonderful, and surrender to God whatever we are doing.
Frank Laubach, a missionary to The Philippines in the 1930s made a game out of the awareness of God to see if he could be aware of God all the time. In many monastic traditions, the bell tolls every hour to remind people to pray. Frank Laubach thought, “Why not every minute?” So he made a practice of becoming aware of God for one second out of every minute. By inviting God into our life as constantly as possible, we are more likely to pick up his cues and see spiritual opportunities in the everyday ordinary. As we do this we experience God more and have more to give back to God in worship.
Challenge: Put a penny in your shoe, and every time you feel it become aware of God’s presence in the present moment.