Last week we discussed how to use our daily tasks at home as opportunities for praying for our family and friends. This week I want us to look at those same activities in the other direction: pretend that they are all done in service to Christ. Actually, we can also use this exercise at the office too, and at the end of this article we'll address that specifically. But as you go through the week, notice how your attitude towards your activities changes when you start to think of them as things done in Christ's service. Do they seem as burdensome? Are you more grateful for the opportunity to do these tasks? Do you see them as things to get done or as things to do? :)

So what am I talking about here? Let's look at just one example: Laundry. Every piece of clothing, every towel, everything you handle when you do the laundry, pretend that it belongs to Christ. If this seems weird to you, consider this: Even in a literal sense, it does belong to Christ! That is, all things were created by and for Christ, and in Christ all things hold together. Further, if we have the Holy Spirit, we have the very fullness of God himself living in us! These clothes really do cover God himself when we wear them!

Consider, then, how you would do your laundry if the clothes and towels and whatever else actually belonged to Christ. Would you work more diligently to treat stains before you put them in the wash? Would you overfill the machine, or throw clothes together indiscriminately? Would you allow them to sit wet overnight? When you pull them out of the dryer, would you put them on hangers right away, or keep them all wadded up in the basket? When you fold them, would you do it neatly as possible? How would you do your laundry differently? And why are you not doing it that way now? After all, wouldn't Christ himself take extra care if he were doing your laundry?

I think you get the picture. When I remember to do this exercise, I find that I take better care of the clothes -- after all, they are Christ's! We can do the same thing with the ironing, the dishes, the vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, straightening up the books and papers, making repairs, washing the car, mowing the yard, etc. Every item in our house and every activity in our schedule becomes an opportunity to serve Christ in an immediate way. Of course, all of this goes for office work as well, so be creative: for example, what if you were Christ's personal assistant? How would your office look? What would you do differently? Tell me what you come up with!

I want to make clear that this isn't a new legalism -- it's simply a way to get you to consider how seriously you take the people in your life: do you love them as bearers of Christ's love, as people made in the image of God and for whom Jesus died? Do you love them as you love yourself? In all these exercises, ask God to show you how to do them to his glory. Ask God to reveal to you, through your routines, the real condition of your heart. And ask God to help you perform these tasks, no longer out of obligation or necessity, but out of pure love. Do them as you think Jesus would do them.

Next week I want to push this idea a little further and to explore the command from Ecclesiastes that we should do everything we do with all of our might. Until then, explore the ways in which you can perform your daily tasks as though you were doing them for Christ himself. And does it change the way you perform these often tedious activities?