Remember your cafeteria trays in elementary school? The large rectangle was for your main dish. The milk carton had its square. The silverware went in the long, skinny trench. Every serving had its place. We tend to serve up life that way: church, work, home—all in separate compartments. But it doesn’t work. We were made to be whole.
This is Howard Butt Jr. of Laity Lodge. When the rich young ruler asked Jesus how to have eternal life, Jesus told him to obey the commandments and to sell his possessions. But his possessions were his compartmentalized idolatry! What Jesus told the young man, he’s still telling us. Our faith doesn’t fit into one compartment. It fills the whole tray … in the high calling of our daily work.
“May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”— 1 Thessalonians 5:23
