Johann Sebastian Bach is regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. He is celebrated as the creator of many masterpieces of church and instrumental music. His body of work includes 256 cantatas.
Bach’s cantatas didn’t originate as music. They were prayers before they were songs. Before Bach started scoring a music sheet, he would scrawl J.J – Jesu Juva – at the very top. It was the simplest of prayers: Jesus, help me.
Then, after every composition, Bach inscribed three letters in the margin of his music: SDG. Those three letters stood for the Latin phrase: Soli Deo Gloria – to the glory of God alone. Soli Deo Gloria was one of the rallying cries of the Protestant Reformation, but Bach personalized it.
Imagine if accountants, doctors, politicians, and entrepreneurs followed suit. What cultural impact would we have if our scripts, bills, and business plans originated as prayers? Imagine students scribbling SDG on their essays, mechanics etching SDG on mufflers, or attorneys scrawling SDG on their appellate briefs.
It is not about what you do.
It is about why you do what you do.
Ultimately, it is about who you do it for.
SDG is living for an audience of one.
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. ~ Col 3:23
In her devotional book Diamonds in the Dust, Joni Eareckson Tada, clarifies the nature of spirituality:
Have you noticed how some activities seem more spiritual, more sacred than others? Singing hymns, teaching Sunday school, or preparing a care basket for a sick friend—all of these seem exalted. But what about when you drive to the gas station for a fill-up? Or when you count up coupons for the clerk at the supermarket? Or while waiting for the salesperson to wrap what you’ve bought?
We do it all the time—separate “religious” activities into one group and “regular” into another. But Leviticus 19 addresses that problem. In one verse, Moses says, “Do not steal.” Yet, the verse next to it states, “Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen” (Leviticus 19:10). Again he says in one verse, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and the verse following, “Do not mate different kinds of animals” (Leviticus 19:18–19).
Why didn’t Moses group together all the spiritual activities and leave those nonessent ial things for another chapter? It’s no mistake that God spoke these commands in one breath, mingling “spiritual” and “nonspiritual.” In God’s eyes, all of life’s activities are sacred. (Diamonds in the Dust, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).
Everyday affairs are the arena of spirituality. Spirituality is obedience in the ordinary. It’s wives respecting their husbands, husbands loving their wives; kids honoring their parents, parents loving their kids; workers doing good works, bosses being fair. All of life is spiritual with no categories. As Joni says, “Remember that, the next time you wash dishes.”
Your servant,
David Gunardi