Thursday: The Spirit Gives Us Special Skills
WEEK 12
THURSDAY
THE SPIRIT GIVES US SPECIAL SKILLS
Romans 12:6-8
Just why did the apostles make this move of separating the sacred from the secular? For two reasons, I think. First, they unconsciously, in the name of spirituality, adopted a pagan attitude toward the material—an import from Greek philosophy. Plotinus said he was ashamed that he had a body. This division between the secular and the sacred was not native to Judaic thought. The Spirit of God made Joseph a good food comptroller (Gen 41:38). The same Spirit made Bezalel a good artist and artisan (Exod 31:1-5). The Spirit of God came on Gideon, and he blew a trumpet and aroused and judged Israel (Jdg 6:34). The Spirit came on Azariah and made him a teacher (2 Chr 15:1-3). The Spirit of God was heightening and adding a plus to the powers of human beings and making them more skillful in their ordinary occupations. That turned the power of religion into the remaking of life in all its phases now. This move of the apostles turned the power of religion away from that into the so-called sacred. They adopted a foreign import.
Second, the apostles carried out a tendency that was manifesting more and more—to set themselves apart into a special class with special functions, honors, and privileges. They were too big to do this kind of work. They didn’t say that—they put a spiritual interpretation on it—but nevertheless that apparently was part of the underlying reason. That same reason, dressed in spiritual garments, is with us today. A minister of a fashionable church came to an Ashram, and when the “work period” came, in which we all work with our hands, he remarked: “I’ve come here to develop my spiritual life, not to work with my hands.” So he stayed out for a day. But the next day he took a broom and began sweeping out a hall. He came back radiant. He said jubilantly: “I didn’t know a broom could do that for you. I’m going to go back to my church and preach the gospel of the Broom.” Why was he jubilant? Well, life, which had been compartmentalized, came back into unity. The long-estranged twins, the secular and the sacred, were reconciled within him. Life was centrally unified, hence happy.
O Lord, give us the experience of making all life into a unity around your will. For your will comprehends and embraces all. May I walk in that will today. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: All my work will be worship today, hence sacred.