Bible Text: Colossians 3:23 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | And whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not as unto men. Colossians 3:23, KJV

There are few people in the world who can honestly say that God disappointed them. Yet Nicholas Herman was one of them. He was converted to Christianity at the age of 18. Seeing a dry, lifeless tree in the dead of winter, and realizing that soon it would burst forth into life as the sap rose in the spring, Herman knew that he was spiritually dead and asked God to give him a rebirth. It happened, too. After that, for a period of time, Nicholas Herman served as a footman and soldier.

In 1666, Nicholas Herman was admitted to a lay brotherhood at the Carmelite monastery in Paris. He entered the order expecting to suffer at the hand of God a great deal as the result of his prior sinful life, but God disappointed him. Instead of a life of regret and suffering, Herman, who was given the name of Brother Lawrence, found forgiveness, joy, and peace beyond expectation. Brother Lawrence’s faith, however, was soon put to the test. He was assigned to the kitchen. By nature, Lawrence was awkward and clumsy. Kitchen duty was a challenge, but the way that he tackled it provides guidelines for victorious living three centuries later.

Lawrence believed that even the most mundane and worldly task can be done in love for God, and doing it for the great King gives the most humble task a spiritual purpose. In his book, Practicing the Presence of Christ, Brother Lawrence shares what God taught him. He wrote, “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees…”

How did Lawrence approach his duty as cook for the brotherhood? With prayer! He wrote that he began each task with fervent prayer and then did it with love for God. At the end of the meal, he prayed again with thanksgiving. Lawrence wrote, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”

To Brother Lawrence, the practical aspects of Christianity could be summed up in three words from the pen of the Apostle Paul: FAITH, HOPE, LOVE. He said, “That all things are possible to him who believes, that they are less difficult to him who hopes; that they are more easy to him who loves, and still more easy to him who perseveres in the practice of these three virtues.” What a legacy! Putting faith, hope, and love into operation was, to Brother Lawrence, practicing the presence of God.

Most family arguments occur not in the bedroom, but in the kitchen, 30 minutes before the evening meal, when the members of the family converge, hot, tired and tense. You, like Brother Lawrence, may hate kitchen duty. It may be a wearisome drudgery to you. Then learn his secret and do it with love for the Lord. Lawrence’s practical approach to the presence of Christ is biblical. “And whatsoever you do,” wrote Paul to the Colossians, “do it heartily as unto the Lord and not as unto men” (Colossians 3:23, KJV).

What is the thing that you dread doing most? Whatever your answer, this is your challenge, and applying a generous dose of the presence of Christ in the form of faith, hope, and love can transform it into a work of grace. To the believer, there should be no task so lowly that he cannot redeem it with grace. There is no difference between the secular and the sacred, for all things can become sacred. Yes, as Brother Lawrence, who lived to be over 80, wrote, “Practicing the presence of God is the best rule of a holy life.”

Resource reading: Colossians 3