I am really interested in this book by Brother Lawrence called The Practice of the Presence of God. As I was doing a search for it today, I came across some really inspiring quotes by Brother Lawrence, who was a seventeenth century French monk. He entered a Carmelite monastery in Paris when he was in his twenties, and worked in the kitchen there for most of his life.

Here is one of his quotes that I found inspiring:

“Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God.”

Imagine what life would have been like for Brother Lawrence with his daily work of serving in the priory kitchen. The repetitiveness; the chopping, the peeling, and boiling; the washing, the drying, the sweeping and mopping; the clatter, the heat, and the constant bidding of those he served. The chores, the sense of the mundane.

But his focus was not on these things. His focus was not on the status of his work, the “greatness” of it in the eyes of others; his focus was on the motivation with which the work is done.

He does not dwell on how personally fulfilled he is by his work, but rather on the opportunity to love God through the task he has been given to do; and then, to be grateful to Him for even giving him the grace to do it.

It inspires me so much to see my work, whatever the role or task God chooses to give me, as simply and humbly an opportunity to love Him. To honour Him by what I say and do, and by my attitude.

And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men  Colossians 3:23