"If only I didn't have to cook dinner, take care of the yard, wash clothes, maintain the car, vacuum, (insert other chores here), I could have the time to do what God really wants me to do!"
I assume that I am not the only one to ever utter those words or something similar to them. I always feel empathy with people who do say them, because I often have those thoughts too.
But I have also been reading this summer, and there are many spiritual people who point out that doing those chores is actually doing the work of God.
Kathleen Norris writes in The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Women's Work,"The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us--loves us so much that the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is 'renewed in the morning' or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, 'our inner nature is being renewed everyday.' Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God."
And while Norris looks at everyday chores as a tool for contemplation, Brother Lawrence sees daily activities as uniting us with God. In the practice of the presence OF GOD, Joseph de Beaufort writes, "the most effective way Brother Lawrence had for communicating with God was to simply do his ordinary work. He did this obediently, out of a pure love of God, purifying it as much as was humanly possible. He believed it was a serious mistake to think of our prayer time as being different from any other. Our actions should unite us with God when we are involved in our daily activities, just as our prayer unites us with Him in our quiet time."
Norris writes that "The ordinary activities I find most compatible with contemplation are walking, baking bread, and doing laundry."
What ordinary activities are most compatible for your own contemplation and prayer time?
