After... devotion...you are to go to your work joyfully.

This morning, for the first time in it's entirety, I did what Martin Luther suggested in the Small Catechism for the morning blessing.

I made the sign of the cross, and asked God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to watch over me.
I then said aloud the Apostle's Creed and the Lord's Prayer, before reciting his suggested prayer:

"I give thanks to you, heavenly Father,
through Jesus Christ your dear Son,
that you have protected me through the night
from all harm and danger.
I ask that you would also protect me today
from sin and all evil,
so that my life and actions may please you.
Into your hands I commend myself:
my body, my soul, and all that is mine.
Let your holy angel be with me,
so that the wicked foe
may have no power over me.
Amen."

Having claimed myself as a person of faith, asked for protection and guidance, having proclaimed my faith aloud, I felt ready to attack the day. Luther makes a point in his instructions which I am going to take as literal as possible. He says after the above prayer, "After singing a hymn, or whatever else may serve your devotion, you are to go to your work joyfully."

...you are to go to your work joyfully! So that I did! I enjoyed a slow morning at home, did a few things around the church, had a great conversation with my new mentor (we have agreed to read the bible through in 2013 and discuss it weekly) and visited some people. At around the time I wanted to be done, I found that I had joyfully completed my tasks for the day. I then enjoyed some family time and make a great connection with our teen. The best day I have had in a while, truly.

I honestly feel like somehow I admitted my weakness and accepted God's help this morning, and also proclaimed my beliefs out loud. Tomorrow I plan to do it as soon as I get out of bed, as Luther suggested, since I ran into several issues this morning just trying to get my coffe and be arranged for morning prayer. 

While I recognize that a traditional commentary on the liturgical calender would start in the beginning of December with Advent, it's my blog and I'll start it anytime i want! I actually love that it was started on Christ's birthday, with the start of a life that forever changed the world, which I am sure no one was truly ready for and I would doubt any of us are ready for today, if we are honest. 

So this whole religion thing has gotten some press recently, and it seems far more would be beneficial.  After hearing and being taught how 'bad' religion is, upon further investigation I have found it to be more of what I need. Who doesn't need more discipline in their life of faith? How many of us actually do devotions every morning? How many of us actually live out the things we so passionately sing about and get taught every Sunday? When we say "I'll pray for you", then do we actually do it? Our follow through on relationships, especially with our Savior, often suffers in our fast-paced technology laced society. 

It is my precise purpose in this blog to reconcile all of us back to our God, and also back to his church; past, present and future. It's seems for us to move forward in maturity as "Christians" we must embrace all that is Christ's. I know it frequently seems easier to deny being allied with traditional religion, it's inherent baggage,  and try to then demonstrate these ways that our type of faith is superior or somehow easier than the rest. In attempting these tactics  we also water down the true message of the gospel. 

We commit the greatest sin by refusing to acknowledged our alliance with Christ's entire church! This not only causing a tremendous amount of confusion to outsiders but a tremendous amount as well to those proclaiming faith. Perhaps the greatest ironic truth is found in this battle we wage against each other as God's people, in direct rebellion to the unifying effect the Holy Spirit brings! The message of Christmas, "peace on earth and goodwill to men" most certainly applies to us. I'll be love to any and all others whom I share faith with, don't share faith with and all others too.