While Tammy and I were on the beach this week, we observed near us a mother, grandmother, and young child, perhaps six. We overheard the grandmother say, “That’s why people go on vacation—to break the rules.” The mother affirmed this: “That’s right. We go on vacation to break rules.” (I bet they rethink that advice when the kid’s seventeen.) Of course, it might be that they were poorly articulating the way a vacation breaks routine, and thus gives rest. But even so, there’s a lesson in there for us.
If you’ve ever felt the urge to whisper in proximity to stained glass, or reasoned that your workplace is “less religious” than church, listen up. The Christian must never think in those terms. Our lives are not segmented into religious and non-religious chapters. Rather, we live out every minute before the eyes of an all-knowing, everywhere-present, creating, saving, redeeming, sustaining, sanctifying, personal, perfect God.
A fancy cathedral full of candles is no more holy than your kid’s rainy lacrosse game. The senior pastor’s office is no closer to God than your cubicle at work. The work you carry out volunteering at the food drive is no more aristocratic than changing another stinky diaper on a Thursday.
Ever wondered what happened to the importance of the Jewish temple? The Holy Spirit of God resides in you! That’s the holy of holies.
The whole, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” is a laughable lie. The sovereign God of heaven sees and knows all. For the spiritually unsettled person, that’s a call to your soul to seek further answers about God, the way he relates to human beings, and the claims of Jesus Christ. For the believer in Christ, it’s the great blessing of our existence as God’s redeemed. He is our personal God and we are his personal people. We may live in joyful and warm fellowship with him who made us and loves us. It’s a foretaste of that greater blessing, seeing him face to face. Until then, what happens in Vegas or anywhere else, is simply a life lived in humble, happy worship of the one who loved enough to save.
