Issue 127
Have you noticed that there are different levels of freedom in your day? You can choose to keep reading this piece, or look away, delete it or file it. You can choose to clench your fist in anger or open you hand for a welcome.
There are other aspects of your physical being over which you have much less choice: for example, your breathing and your heartbeat. Sure, you can change the rate of both but you don’t really have the freedom to stop either and remain alive. They are part of what is called the autonomic system. They function automatically and vitally.
Of course there is a range of behaviours and activities in-between over which we exercise varying degrees of choice. Once you choose to work for someone you automatically restrict your freedom to be elsewhere. Some jobs have tight controls and codes whereby severe limitations are placed on you by your own agreement.
It is one of the defining characteristics of human freedom that we can choose to restrict our freedom, presumably for our own benefit.
As you would expect, there is a spiritual challenge in place, which contains a paradoxical element as we are invited to choose certain activities over others. Such activities are so vital to your well-being that you may wish they were automatic, yet they are not. “Pray continually,” urges Paul. He is not advocating separate, distinct, specific quiet or prayer times, but an incessant prayer-consciousness which is simply part of our being. Like breathing,, it is what computer programmers call a ‘background running process’, without which you die. It is to be part of your operating system, as autonomic as a heartbeat. You may speed it up or slow it down, varying its intensity, but you never stop. The paradox is that prayer needs to be continuous but falls into the category of freedom of choice; nevertheless, without it we shrivel.
So, a couple of suggestions: why not learn to see every single act as an act of worship? – not just the religious, churchy, so-called sacred ones but the tasks that you actually perform today. Secondly, why not help yourself by filling your world with conscious reminders of your God? Your screensaver, your passwords, your breathing in and out, your view of the tools of your trade can be seen in your mind’s eye as speaking of him. The whole creation, of course, speaks of God if you listen. Most of the time we miss the significance but that is a choice we need not make.
Maybe the ability to pray continually seems a mile away to you, but each choice you make to become more conscious of God will move the prayer thing out of the sanctuary box and into your daily world where it belongs – paradoxically autonomic, life-maintaining and continuous.
1 Thessalonians 5:12-24
12Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. 16Be joyful always; 17pray continually; 18give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 19Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; 20do not treat prophecies with Contempt. 21Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22Avoid every kind of evil. 23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
In preparation for the next GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly, do feel free to email us your thoughts to wtw@worktalk.gs or leave a comment on our Facebook or Twitter profile. You can also visit our YouTube channel - get inspired and share Worktalk's vision with others.
Work well
Geoff Shattock
© Copyright 2024 Geoff Shattock
All GEOFFSHATTOCKweekly archives are for personal use only. For permission to use for any other purposes please email using the address below thank you.
WORKTALK LEARNING
1 Washington Villas, Hythe Road, Marchwood, Southampton, Hampshire, SO40 4WT United Kingdom
T:+44 (0)23 8086 8543
http://www.geoffshattock.com
comms@worktalk.gs
