The alarm blares as I slide off the bed and somehow make it into the shower – nearly blind without my glasses and halfway sleeping-walking with my eyes closed as I turn the shower on. My routine begins. It mirrors the daily lives of so many Anglicans across North America and beyond. Before anything gets accomplished, the coffee is brewing and hits my lips. Now I can concentrate. Now I can pray.
Unlike my lay brothers and sisters however, I am bound by the spirit of the 1662 rubrics to begin the daily offices. Although bound by law, I must remind myself that the daily offices are not a burden to my soul, but are unmerited grace prodding me to bow before my Maker, confess my sins, and be reminded of His most excellent Son’s sacrifice atoning for my miserable offending with my darkened heart and disordered passions.
Morning prayer begins. The grace of hearing the Word of God passes through my lips and returns to me through my ears.
The Lord is present.
He always is. He is never far from us. I finish my first of many cups of coffee (black and unadulterated, the way the Lord made it) and head towards my basement to my office nook. The blue light of my computer fires up and I start the day reviewing contracts, answering questions and concerns about compliance, and counseling others on how to handle situations with legal implications. I am a minister to God’s Word, God’s sacraments, and an attorney at law.
My vocation, like everyone’s vocation, is multifaceted. I do not necessarily have two vocations, but like a diamond, all Christians are multifaceted and reflect and refract several vocations at once. After all, I am a father, a husband, a minister, an attorney, a citizen of my locality, a volunteer, a writer. But underlying (and Lord willing) permeating through each of these facets is the diamond that gleams – Christ Jesus – who has bought us from slavery into adopted sons of God Almighty.
Read the rest at The North American Anglican.
We see through a mirror darkly 