Tozer on Living

To say [every act of life is sacred] is not to bring all acts down to one dead level; it is rather to lift every act up into a living kingdom and turn the whole life into a sacrament.  The Pursuit of God, Ch. 10

We just finished reading this book together as a staff.  I think it's probably the 8th or so time I've read it.  Tozer is a modern-day prophet, and the words he wrote 50-60 years ago still ring amazingly true.

The thing I love about how he closes his masterpiece, The Pursuit of God, is how he de-mystifies the mystical.  Throughout he talked about having experiences with God, seeing God, knowing God, walking with God.  All of it (rightly) has taken on mystical qualities.  When I first read Pursuit, that's the big lesson I  walked away with:  God is meant to be experienced, not just theologized or spoken about.

But chapter 10 brings it out of the ether and into the day-in and day-out rhythm of life.  Tozer even gives some pastoral counsel as to how to do it (I'll let you read it for yourself rather than summarize and rob it of any life-changing power it might have over you).

One thing I love about the quote above:  every aspect of life is included.  If we eat or drink or do anything else, it is all to be done to God's glory (1 Cor. 10.31).  That means even the normal, even banal, things of life can be done in such a way as to honor God.  The most humble and common of acts can be worship.  The most human things we do - eating, drinking, talking, relationships, sexuality, vocation, reading, cooking, mowing, laundry - all can be done as worship.

The demarcation between worship and activity is motive.  "Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.  All he does is good and acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."  (Pursuit, Ch. 10)