An Integrated Life

I spent awhile this morning meditating on these words from Henri Nouwen  (The Genesee Diary):

“When God is my only concern, when God is at the center of my interest, when all my prayers, my reading, my studying, my speaking, and writing [let's add: my running of my business, my parenting, my lawyering, my farming, my factory work, my accounting, my store clerking...] serve only to know God better and to make him known better, then there is no basis for anxiety or stage fright… How divided my heart has been and still is!  I want to love God, but also to make a career.  I want to be a good Christian, but also have my successes as a teacher, preacher, or speaker.  I want to be a saint, but also enjoy the sensations of the sinner.  i want to be close to Christ but also popular and liked by many people.  No wonder that living  becomes a tiring enterprise.”

That’s worth chewing on for awhile for those of us who feel called to make the Monday Connection in our lives.   What does it mean to “make him better known” in the way I go about my daily work?  Is there a way to make God better known in the way I run a business?  In the way I parent my children?  In the way I teach?  In the way I manage my office?  In the way I tend the shop? …  You get the idea.  If God is everywhere, if I am called to serve him in all I do, if every job can be a calling, if it is “Christ who lives in me”, if I am “seeking first the kingdom”, then it has to be possible, doesn’t it?  I’m not saying it is easy.  I agree with Nouwen that I am often plagues by a divided heart.  But that must  become my motivation, my resolve, not my excuse. 

Ah, to live a God-centered life from Monday to Saturday….

kb