The Glory of God

Christians have a certain lingo that gets used so much, it begins to lose its impact (if it really had any).  The phrase “The Glory of God” is one such phrase.  It is used often, but sadly many times with little thought.  I am probably the most guilty of the irreverent use of such phrases.  However, I have been thinking about what it means to really live for God’s glory.  We like to say we live for the glory of God, but I am beginning to wonder if we really know what that means.  Much of the time we emphasize glorifying God in worship, singing, praying, witnessing, or proclaiming Truth–and those disciplines most definitely are principle tools used to bring glory to God.  But what about the rest of life?  What about taking a shower in the morning?  What about eating a quick bite for lunch?  What about getting our brakes checked?  Can those normal activities of life bring honor and glory to our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ?  Paul thought so; he said, “whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”  How then do I eat, take a shower, check my brakes (etc.) to the glory of God??? I believe that first we must recognize that all we have and are able to accomplish is a direct gift of God’s Providence.  I believe that instead of complaining that our brakes are squealing we can pause and thank God that he gave someone the mind to invent the little warning strips on brakes that makes them squeak before they fail.  We can pause and thank God that we actually have a car that is drivable.  We can find an opportunity to use that seemingly mundane need to show the grace and kindness of God.  I was challenged by this recently from my mother.  She didn’t know she challenged me, but she did.  We recently had a visiting couple in our church.  He owns an auto shop.  Usually, in most Christian churches, there is some visiting and shaking of hands and whatnot going on after services.  My precious mother introduced herself to this couple and began to ask them a little about themselves.  After she had learned about his auto-shop, she asked him if she could come down and have him look at her brakes.  What is so unusual you ask?  This struck me as unusual since we usually have our trusted mechanics, are rather suspicious about things like guys checking our brakes (and for good reason), and are so self-absorbed that we think about our problems most of the time.  She had a problem, her brakes were squealing, but that is not why she got this visitor’s business card and plans to take her car to him; she did this so that she might (as I found out when talking to her later) in some way minister to this family.  She took a problem and turned it into an opportunity to proclaim the glory and excellency of God.  One very important way we can live to the glory of God is to take every opportunity (even unsuspecting ones) to speak of Christ.  I applied this to my shower this morning when I got up at 5:00 to open up the church as a polling location.  Normally, I just rub my eyes and try to let the heat of the water wake me up; but this morning, I took a moment in the shower to meditate on the goodness of God in giving me the opportunity to clean up, warm up, and possibly be able to somehow show God’s glory to the hundreds that will pile through our church building in order to vote.  Maybe I can be a testimony of God’s glory to the poll workers.  Maybe they could see Christ in me, and God would be glorified!!