The Quiet Work

GROWTH RARELY HAPPENS WHERE LIFE IS EASIEST

BY AMBER PANTER

Are you sitting down? No, really ... are you actually sitting down? You are likely sitting on a chair or bed right now — maybe leaning over a counter. If so, consider sitting on the floor while you read this. I listen to a neuroscience podcast, and the host always gives tips on aging well so we can take care of ourselves as we get older. Apparently, when we are children, we use muscles that we don’t keep using when we grow up. Sitting on the floor helps us keep those muscles working. So, if we sit on the ground for at least twenty minutes a day, it helps us age better. The getting up and the getting down are also beneficial. It doesn’t come naturally to me to sit on the ground. I habitually go to a chair, stool, etc. I have to remind myself to sit elsewhere, and I have to remind myself that it is for prolonged health benefits and my future. But it doesn’t feel good, and sometimes I worry that the floor is dirty. Quite frankly, it isn’t convenient.

My health is important enough to me that I create intentional habits. My relationship with the Lord is infinitely more important. I have to remind myself daily that all my actions — whether noticeable to others or not — should honor the Lord. This ritual can be cumbersome. It’s much easier to fall into the trap of thinking my intentions are good or my actions are justified. Just like it’s much easier to sit on a chair. But if I don’t consistently ask God to reveal my innermost thoughts, I will happily skip over the truth. It isn’t convenient either. I’m usually convicted and have to stop in my tracks.

Psalm 139:23 — 24 Search me, God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.

Doesn’t everyone want to be liked? To succeed? To get a pat on the back? You might have people around you (with good intentions) telling you it’s totally understandable that you are just “driven” and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to be “successful”. But let’s examine what’s behind your drive before we say there’s nothing wrong with it.

Obedience to the Lord is key. And there are times when we are in a valley, and it is all we can do to just be obedient to the Lord. Our emotional exhaustion has taken over, and we are simply on autopilot. That season is real, and if you are there, please tell as many people as possible so they can be praying for you. The power of God is the only thing that can truly pull us out, so let the people pray! However, when we are in our everyday circumstances, going through the motions of life, are we giving honor and glory to the Lord in our actions and our motives? As Christian adults, I feel like it would be beating a dead horse to tell you that our joy isn’t found in things — we know that. Things don’t make us happy, and circumstances change, but we are to find our joy in the Lord, and we were created for His glory — to honor and worship Him.

Revelation 4:11 says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things … ”

My circumstances right now are rather generic. I’m a wife, mom of two teen boys, and a Christian school counselor. To the onlooker, when I do things, people probably assign me motives that are better than they really are. For example, I want to be a good school counselor. I want to help kids out of bad situations and teach them to thrive in a fallen world. But instead of thinking, “I want to be the best school counselor,” I should be thinking, “How can I honor God when I counsel my students?” It is more than just semantics. Let me explain.

Think of a famous person who gives a lot of money to charities for impoverished people. As you think of (insert name of a billionaire philanthropist that is known to build schools and feed the hungry), do you also automatically think they love the Lord? Or I can use an example closer to home. If I (a Christian) drive my elderly aunt to the hospital, you might think I am doing the Lord’s work. But a lot of atheists drive their relatives to the hospital. Lots of skeptics give to charities. Lots of agnostics do community service. What makes anything I do any different? Isaiah 29:13 says, “The Lord says, ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”

When I strip away all the worldly advice that says, “you’re just doing the best you can,” and I analyze my actions, are they honoring the Lord?

At the end of the day, at the end of this life, I am alone with the Lord, and He knows my heart, my intentions, my motives. I can distort conversations to go my way. I can be a people pleaser.

I can look the part. But the Lord knows. So, I have to ask myself constantly, how can I honor the Lord when I respond to that text? How can I honor the Lord when I talk about that student? How can I honor the Lord in my marriage? Am I honoring the Lord when I write that email? Am I honoring the Lord when I make that joke? These aren’t questions that I ask anyone else. Even though the Lord has put people in my life to give Biblical wisdom, there are times when I need to be alone with God and ask these questions. Which all build upon this: Am I living out Romans 11:36? “For from Him, and through Him, and for Him are all things.” All things. It’s uncomfortable. But a couple of months ago, when I first started sitting on the ground every day, it was much harder to get back up than it is today.