Mortadella and God?!?!

I was slicing mortadella, a really gross lunchmeat (sorry if you're Italian and love the stuff), for about the millionth time at work earlier this week...and I have to say, I was feeling just a tad insignificant.

The day had been trying--grumpy customers, grouchy coworkers, angry boss, the list goes on. Before I knew it, a full-blown pity-party was taking place in my head.

I was angry that I had to work this "meaningless," thankless job (just a little pride there, don't you think???). I wasn't getting what I crave--approval from others (totally misplaced value). And I, lofty college grad that I am, had to *gasp* SERVE other people all day long!

The Lord lovingly flooded me with the grace to discern my heart. It is truly astounding how the Spirit can knock you flat on your face before you even know what happened! One second, your flesh is wholly enjoying the release of venting about 'whatever,' and the next instant, you are left trembling with the fear of the Holy One.

So, all of this is happening in my mind and in my heart while I'm slicing half of a pound of a smelly, fatty lunchmeat. The irony of this reality hit me full force--I am simultaneously performing a menial little task and crying out to the Sovereign Creator of all things (my Father, nonetheless!!!).

I am talking to G-O-D...

Such immense joy hit me that I laughed out loud. What sweet fellowship comes when the proper balance is restored--God is ultimate...I am pen-ultimate. Okay! This is right. Now what would He have me do--honor Him by *gulp* slicing mortadella for His glory.

Such moments happen, for me at any rate, about a hundred times a day. It is the constant struggle of the Christian life--living in the spirit, not the flesh.

I'm going to end with a rather lengthy excerpt from the book The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer because it's just too good not to share. I encourage you to read it and let it sink in.

"A spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us, altogether within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it...our trouble is that we have established bad thought habits. We habitually think of the visible world as real and doubt the reality of any other. We do not deny the existence of the spiritual world but we doubt that it is real in the accepted meaning of the word...sin has so clouded the lenses of our hearts that we cannot see that other reality, the City of God, shining around us. The world of sense triumphs. The visible becomes the enemy of the invisible, the temporal, of the eternal...we must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen. For the great unseen Reality is God...if we truly want to follow God, we must seek to be other-worldly...the "other world," which is the object of this world's disdain and the subject of the drunkard's mocking song, is our carefully chosen goal and the object of our holiest longing. But we must avoid the common fault of pushing the "other world" into the future. It is not future, but present...as we begin to focus upon God, the things of the spirit will take shape before our inner eyes...a new God-consciousness will seize upon us and we shall begin to taste and hear and inwardly feel God, who is our life and our all....more and more, as our faculties grow sharper and more sure, God will become to us the great All, and His presence the glory and wonder of our lives...make heaven more real to me than earthly thing has ever been."