Learning sacramental living

Today was one of "those" Mondays...the ones where I wake up feeling totally spent and exhausted, with a headache to boot.  Typically this pattern seems to be due to a combination of allergies, busy weekends, and weather pressure systems moving through.  I've had more of "those" Mondays recently than I would like to admit, even to myself.  It is discouraging to wake up and realize that my plans for being productive and getting things done might just have to be put on hold.

Thankfully, after some extra rest this morning, I was able to get up--not that I was super motivated, mind you--but I knew from experience that if I at least got a few things done my mood would inevitably improve.  There's something so healing about a clean living space.  Once I've completed my chores I can fully relax rather than feeling the weight of the clutter oppressively clouding my thoughts.

So, I got up, as that seems to always be the first step to any productivity.  And I started, one task at a time, and the more progress I made, the more motivated I became to take on additional tasks.  I turned on a favorite personalized music station to keep me company in the relative silence of the house and hummed along to the worship tunes that filled the air.  Several hours later, I found myself sitting on the couch and surveying the fruit of my labor: a clean kitchen and living space, clean clothing folded and put away (albeit with a few straggling pieces spread out over chairs or a drying rack to air dry), a hot peach pie on the table and the "guts" of another chilling in the freezer for a later date.

After those productive hours, I was encouraged by how much better I felt and how much I had accomplished.  I decided to read the final chapter from The Pursuit of God before Jonathan got home this evening.  It didn't take long to realize I was in for an even bigger treat than I had anticipated.  The final chapter, whose title inspired mine for this blog, was perhaps the most practical and impactful of the entire book.  I could try to summarize Tozer's thoughts, but he does a much more eloquent job than I could in this quote from that chapter: 

"We must practice living to the glory of God, actually and determinedly. By meditation upon this truth, by talking it over with God often in our prayers, by recalling it to our minds frequently as we move about among men, a sense of its wondrous meaning will begin to take hold of us. The old painful duality will go down before a restful unity of life. The knowledge that we are all God's, that He has received all and rejected nothing, will unify our inner lives and make everything sacred to us...Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there."--A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

As I sat and considered what I had read, it occurred to me that, in addition to my personal quirky nature that causes me to actually enjoy cleaning, part of the reason why it was so enjoyable today was that I get to meditate on the Lord and serve my husband through my efforts.  Now, I am not claiming to have mastered sacramental living--far from it--but I noticed a correlation today. I am convinced that my choice to listen to praise and worship music rather than half-watching a TV show (a common background noise choice, and not one that in and of itself is wrong) had a huge influence on my attitude and the outcome of my afternoon, because it caused my mind to be centered on Jesus, His sacrificial love for me, and my response of love and gratitude to Him.  

I know the Lord brought this realization to my attention, because this morning I had practically given up on today being productive or uplifting.  I am thankful for the His willingness to reach down and prove me wrong by touching my day with His presence. I realize that I cannot expect the Lord to always speak into my day so obviously, but I have learned to appreciate the times when He does.  Furthermore, I look forward to practicing sacramental living more and more in the coming days.  What an opportunity, and even more, what a blessing!