Oct 5 Email

I agree with you that whatever is done for the Lord is a form of worship to him, but I'm not sure I know what that means. How is washing the floor of the student center worship to God? It's the cleaning person's job, so it's not a form of service. It's probably not enjoyed, so I think you'd be hard pressed to say that it's a joy to clean the sc. How can you just "do something for the Lord"? Does that mean the cleaning person is thinking about God while doing it? That s/he has a good attitude while doing it?

There does seem to be a differentiation that you lightly touched on between such manual labor acts and more intellectual ones. Intellectual ones seem to involve more creativity. I know there can be creativity in manual labor, but it's often quite limited by the job. There is certainly a level of skill in both, but again, couldn't a cleaning person do a perfect job cleaning the floor, while in poetry, I don't see such an upper limit. I'm not trying to be snobby, but this is how I see it.

Of course, clearly, from the perspective of the heart, all that matters is what is genuine. If I'm writing poetry yes, for God, but also for myself it may not be as much worship as if the cleaning person is cleaning with all his/her heart (which I'm not sure what that means, still).

From a practical service perspective, the arts do seem less down-to-earth-useful. If the sc floor didn't get cleaned, I would notice. If I didn't write anymore poetry, not many people would notice or be affected by that.

Yet, I can't help feeling that writing and music and painting are all activities that are close to God. (Here, I'm trying to be aware of the assumption that we tend to make God in our own image.) Is creativity one of his greatest qualities?

Well, this came up because I've started writing during the Lord's Supper. Usually religious poems. To me, it is worship in the same sense that praying or singing is worship, yet it is not so much a vertical, Man-to-God act as a intrapersonal, horizontal act within myself of praise. It is creation, rather than repition.

Well, I'll let you chew on those disordered thoughts.