I’m often thinking about how to share Jesus and His love and grace, and it struck me that I usually do it with my words. That’s my passion! But I can do the same thing–share Jesus–without words too.
Let me back up a bit.
My lifelong work has been to write words that entertain and to offer readers some nuggets of truth and beauty. Sometimes these words are household hints, for example, how to choose a pillow. Many of my words, fiction and nonfiction, invite a deeper reflection on faith, grace, and Christ’s love.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from a link, I may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ordinary Words, Ordinary Gal
When I rebranded my website, I needed a short and memorable phrase, a tagline, to illustrate this goal.
So I prayed and brainstormed and played with it.
At some point, I remembered a quote. I’d been researching a Bible study I wrote on the Proverbs 31 woman. One of my excellent resources was Demystifying the Proverbs 31 Woman by a colleague and writer-friend, Elizabeth Ahlman. She writes, “In Christ, because of His activity in and through us in our vocations, the profane becomes sacred.”
The “profane” means the common, the ordinary, the regular stuff. The “sacred,” of course, is the holy, the beautiful, the blessed.
I closed the study with a reminder (not at all an original thought) that the Proverbs 31 verses are not a prescription for how to be a better and busier woman or how to be more productive and efficient. They are a reminder that because of Christ’s death and resurrection, whatever we do—the regular everyday stuff—it all becomes sacred.
The ordinary is extraordinary in Christ.
Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Except when it doesn’t.
In The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes, “There are no ordinary people.” Did I choose a confusing tagline? Am I an “ordinary gal,” as I advertise on the home page?
With eloquence, Lewis explains how every person is not a “mere mortal.” He continues, “The dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”
Whoa.
Let’s look at that again.
Every person we meet is immortal. Even those who seem dull and uninteresting.
Every person has a life beyond this mortal life.
Lewis continues, “All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.”
That should wake us up.
How can I help my neighbor to a beautiful eternity?
On paper, it’s simple.
Share Christ.
I can live and breathe and work and play and serve and love so others may get a glimpse of the extraordinary, the sacred, the holy. So that others will see Christ. (This is a very condensed explanation of an important doctrine in my faith tradition known as vocation. I am barely scratching the surface here, readers. In a nutshell, we are called into different roles where we are to love and serve our neighbors.)
But what does this look like in our real and messy lives? Yes, we can always share Jesus with our words, but what about our actions? Here are 3 simple ways to share Jesus without words.
3 Ways to Share Jesus Without Words
1. Prioritize
We have many vocations: family, work, church, community. Sometimes these seem to battle for our time. How can we do all of them and do them well?
“We should give the priority to the neighbor with the greatest need.” This means paying attention to the people around you and asking God to guide you with His wisdom. Who is my neighbor with the greatest need in this moment? It might be my spouse. Sometimes it’s one of my children. Perhaps it’s a friend who just had surgery.
This might seem like a no-brainer but it’s often been a struggle for me. I put too many things on my plate. I’m sometimes not flexible. I tend to navel-gazing. Me, my schedule, my to-do list. What helps me with this? List-making, writing, and scheduling, for sure. But also holding all those things lightly. Letting God lead me away from my plans, if that’s how I can serve my neighbor well.
2. Do whatever you do well.
Whatever. Dusting, gardening, making chocolate chip cookies. Going to the grocery store to buy chocolate chip cookies. Arguing a case in a courtroom. Teaching toddlers. Flying a jet. “The first requirement in performing one’s work as a Christian is doing it well . . . Luther said it succinctly: ’The Christian cobbler is one who first of all makes good shoes, not poor shoes with little crosses on them.’” (Robert Benne, Ordinary Saints, quoted in Working for Our Neighbor by Gene Edward Veith.)
Clearly, we need to return to #1 time and time again because we cannot always do everything well. We have to choose.
Let me also add that I didn’t say “Do whatever you do perfectly.” Nope.
Right now, I’m choosing to write this post well (not perfectly) and not just slap a little cross on it and call it good. However, we have family visiting, so I also need to cook a few meals, do laundry, babysit, and entertain.
“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”
Colossians 3:23-24 (ESV)
3. And finally, love.
You know this already. But maybe you are like me and need the reminder. Instead of defaulting to judgment, criticism, gossip, hatred, or selfishness, let’s put on love as we prioritize and do things well.
I’ll close with two gems.
First, another quote from Lewis. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.” (The Weight of Glory)
Second, and most importantly, when we mess up in any of our vocations–and we will!–we can confess our failing and our faithful God will forgive us. 1 John 1:9.
To Him be the glory.
Looking for more devotions and reflections on faith? Click here.
Pin this post for later!
