9/26/2011

Brother Lawrence was a simple monk whose job it was to wash the dishes of the monastery. However, he figured out bring glory to God and enjoy deep fellowship with Him while doing even menial labor. Brother Lawrence once wrote, "In the way of God, thoughts count for little, love is everything. nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. We can do little things for God....It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God." I wish I had Brother Lawrence's attitude about straw-picking up!

Brother Lawrence shared his secret, writing, "How very much shorter and easier it is to do our common business purely for the love of God, to set his consecrating mark on all we lay hands to, and thereby foster the sense of His abiding presence by constant communion of our heart with His!...my only business is to live as though there were none but He and I in the world."

Brother Lawrence figured out how to practically live out a life-changing principle: There is no greater satisfaction than a life lived solely for God's glory. He understood what Paul meant when he wrote, "Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." (Col 3:17) It is so freeing to know that what I do matters little compared to how I do it. I encourage you who are reading this to cultivate an attitude which resembles Christ's, who, as Paul wrote, "..humbled himself by becoming obedient to death--even death on a cross!"(Phil 2:8). If we are able to cloak all our actions with Christ-like humility and love, Paul says that we will "shine among them like stars in the sky" (Phil 2:15). What better way to share Christ's love with the world?

Luke