I want everything I do in life to be either worship or mission. Many people have a narrow definition of these words, so let me define my terms.

Worship essentially means treating God like he is a big deal. It consists in both praising God and receiving his gifts with joy and thanksgiving. You can worship through prayer, singing, and reading the bible. You can also worship by taking a walk, laughing with friends, enjoying a good meal (1 Corinthians 10:31), playing a game, or engaging in a hobby you love.

Mission is doing what God created you to do for the betterment of the world. The image of going to a poor foreign country and serving might come to mind when you think of mission. That is mission, but it is a narrow view. Your work in the marketplace, cleaning the house, helping out a loved one who is struggling, telling someone about Jesus, or volunteering in the community can all be mission.

Worship is loving God, mission is loving your neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40). Worship is abiding in Christ, mission is bearing fruit (John 15). Worship is knowing God, mission is making him known. These categories are fluid and can overlap. For example, playing with my son is both worship and mission for me. It gives me great joy, and I am also fulfilling my calling as a father. Exercising and reading are other activities that could fit into either category.

Here is an image adapted from Pastor Mike Breen’s work/rest semi-circle:

I want my life to flow between doing good work (mission) then resting in God (worship). The biblical characters that come to mind are Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-41). Martha was busy with her many tasks while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to him. Jesus elevates Mary in this passage, but both are essential. What does my life look like when I get out of rhythm?

The Flesh Semi-Circle

When I get out of rhythm I substitute mission with people pleasing and worship with self-indulgence.

Instead of serving others for their good and God’s glory, I serve to gain approval from people. It might look like flattery, saying yes when I would rather say no, or avoiding confrontation.

Instead of receiving God’s gifts with thanksgiving, I can take them for granted and use them in unhealthy ways. This might look like mindlessly scrolling social media, hitting the snooze button too many times, binging tv shows, over-eating, procrastinating, or lashing out in anger.

The biblical characters that come to mind are the two brothers in Luke 15. The younger brother wanted to live the high life. He demanded his inheritance before his father died (a big no-no), took his wealth and squandered it in wild living. He lived to gratify earthly desires. The older brother, on the other hand, never did anything wrong. He worked hard, did his duty, and obeyed his father. Which isn’t wrong in itself, but at the end of the story we see that he didn’t do his work out of love for his father, but rather so that he could gain status and recognition from his father (Luke 15:29).

Coming Full Circle

Galatians 5:17 tells us that there is a war inside every believer between the flesh and the Spirit. The Spirit is focused on God and others while the flesh is focused on the self. It gets challenging because the line between the flesh and the Spirit can be very thin. How do I know if I am working hard out of love for my neighbor, or if I am finding my worth in being helpful? Where is the line between enjoying the good gifts that God has given and turning a good thing into a god thing?

Am I writing this post to serve others (mission), or so that people will think I’m clever (people-pleasing)? Do I receive my morning coffee as a good gift from God (worship), or am I addicted to caffeine (self-indulgence)? Do I workout acknowledging that God uniquely made my body to move (worship), and he calls me to steward this gift well (mission), or do I do it to feel good about myself (self-indulgence) and to appear more attractive to others (people-pleasing)?

I don’t have an answer. C.S. Lewis was right when he said, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” We are indeed half-hearted creatures who are easily distracted by lesser things. Sometimes the Spirit wins that battle and sometimes the flesh.

The good news is that if you are in Christ, the war has already been won. When Jesus died on the cross for your sin and selfishness and rose from the dead in power, he secured your eternity. You don’t have to earn his love or perform your way into his good graces. Rather, you can receive his salvation through faith. You don’t have to live in fear about messing up and not living perfectly because Jesus already paid your debt. We don’t praise God and do good deeds out of fear that he will punish us. We do those things because it is what we were created to do. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).

Work hard. Play hard. Praise heartily.