Worship.
Serve.
Work.
Create.
All these areas of my life dividing me, pulling me into a million fractured pieces. How is one to find happiness when you feel split knowing a “house divided against itself shall not stand?” (Matthew 12:25)
The division within causes resentment because instead of creating you have to go and work.
Worry that with all the working there isn’t time to serve.
Or worship.
And how did my priorities become such that worship comes at the end instead of the beginning?
I realize I need to do a bit more worshiping, or studying the Good Word, to gather the fragments. I look at those words:
work,
serve,
worship,
create –
and see they could be synonyms for each other.
Could they really just be the same thing with different names?
I dig deeper, look further, study harder.
And I strike gold.
Avodah {ab-o-daw’}.
Avodah is a Hebrew word used in the Bible whose root has three distinct yet intertwined meanings: work, worship, and service.
Here I’ve been dividing my life when in reality it is all one in the same!
In the original Hebrew text of the Bible, God used one word, avodah, to describe all areas of a life. It takes work to worship. We can worship while we work and most especially while we serve. And where does creating enter in? That too is a form of work. Most meaningful of all, a specialization of the usage of avodah in the Bible is in association with the temple, particularly the sacrifices made there. What is my sacrifice?
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)
My life. All of it.
Of course, I’ve heard this all before but now it is finally sinking in, into my heart. Just this past General Conference Elder M. Russell Ballard taught, “Only when our testimony transcends what is in our mind and burrows deep into our heart will our motivation to love and to serve become like unto the Savior’s. It is then, and only then, that we become deeply converted disciples of Christ empowered by the Spirit to reach the hearts of our fellowmen. . . We take the next logical step in our complete conversion to the gospel of Christ by assimilating its doctrines deep within our hearts and our souls so we will act and live consistently—and with integrity—what we profess to believe.”
I can do that. I can live a life of devoted discipleship, consistently live what I profess to believe. Oh I will definitely fail, miserably at times. But I can try. Again and again I can try to fully live avodah.
“We have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it.“(Elder Jeffrey R. Holland)
The many fragmented pieces are still here, tied in places with shoestring, nailed tightly together in others, but it is together. Thankfully, I have come to realize my house isn’t falling apart after all. It’s merely being rebuilt.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Avodah.
Beautiful images. Lovely text. Wonderful word!
Two thumbs way up on this post.
I’ll be studying this one more…I love your insights.
Thanks for taking the time to share them. 🙂
That was stirring and uplifting and inspiring, thank you. I want my testimony to move from my mind only and burrow deep into my heart. That quote has given me something to work for as well.
That’s awesome! Thank you for sharing that.
Holy cow. How did you get to be so awesome? You are serious a genius. I love this post. It is amazing. just like you.
I was just thinking about this idea (not the word, that’s beyond me!) in church yesterday. I was wanting to study all about the Doctrine and Covenants, and all the topics in For the Strength of Youth, and work on my Personal Progress alongside my Beehive daughter, and serve as many people as possible, and so on and so forth. I actually had the thought “I should send the kids back to public school so I can do all those things!” Then I remembered that in this season of my life I am called to LIVE the Gospel. The years of active parenting are a wonderful season for practicing true discipleship. We can study, but usually only in snatches, but oh my how we get to practice unselfish love, patience and temperance! So thank you for introducing me to the word avodah. Incidentally our motto for the year is “Face your fears!” inspired by my sister-in-law’s chance encounter with a possum in our garage. With finger pointing my four-year-old instructed his aunt. “Face your fears!” he said, so she would go back out there to find the ice cream!
Love the story! And yes, you are right. Active parenting is definitely the season for practicing true discipleship.
When you study the scriptures in a different language, what language do you study them in?
I think studying the scriptures in any other language is helpful. I don’t know how to speak other languages but I know enough Spanish to at least read. I study one verse in English then study that same verse in Spanish looking up the meaning of words in that language. For instance learning about the word hope in Spanish – esperanza – is helpful in understanding more about hope because the root of esperanza is espera or wait. That adds a deeper meaning to having hope in our lives.
My MIL gave my husband the books you see in the post to study the original Greek and Hebrew words in the Bible. It has been so nice to have that reference to enhance my study of the Bible! Many times meaning get lost in translation so seeing what they originally were really adds additional insight.
I love how the right word can give meaning and perspective to something many of us struggle to do daily out of necessity. What a beautiful word.
I loved this. Thanks for writing it, posting it!
Love this post! Great quotes, great scriptures and photos and thoughts! I feel overwhelmed so often because of all the wonderful things to do and learn in this life! There just aren’t enough hours in the day but I’ve been realizing that I need to be centered on Christ- on what matters most and it will all fall into place.
Thank you for this. My word is TURN- to God, To prayer, to scriptures, to family, to water, to exercise, to a new plan to positive thoughts. I’m having a hard time studying the scriptures however. The last 3 years have been hard and I haven’t really turned to the Lord, especially in prayer and scriptures and how else do you do it- Those 2 things. I go to church, serve in my callings, but my heart has not been in attached to the Savior. Before these 3 years I spent the last 20 years prior to that studying the scriptures and I know my stuff, so much so that I get prideful about teachers in church that don’t know as much as me, or at least what I know. I’ve been trying to find a new way to study the scriptures, but nothing seems to want to stick- to really get in my heart and scream yes! I’ve bounced around to 3 different ways. I think I may have done them all. But of course I’m not as the professors at BYU like Daniel C. Peterson and Millet, but I don’t know in what direction to go. Any ideas? Help please! Can’t believe I’m asking. It’s never been a problem before!
I think you already know…look inside yourself…new way, new direction…”More Holiness Give Me”..good words in that song. I have been thinking lately how much I keep doing the same things, routines, habits and have realized that I am expecting different results. I am trying to change my routine and habits so, I can now truely expect different results…real results. Keep trying..don’t give up 🙂
Thank you Unknown! My heart is not in it. I’ve been so angry for so long and I need to be mike Cocoa and Heather at Women in the scriptures and others.
Acknowledgement that something needs to change is a huge step you’ve already taken Becky Rose. Studying the scriptures in a different language is very enlightening for me because the words take on different meanings I may have not thought about before. It’s how I came to find out about avodah.
Love this post! Thank you for sharing 🙂
I love that these things are interwoven in one word. How very diligent you were to seek it out and then share this with us. Our family’s theme this year is “Have I done any good?” taken from President Monson’s “What Have I Done for Someone Today?” General Conference talk a while back, but brought to my attention by the Alex Boye video of the song. My kids love that and we walk around singing the lyrics when we see someone who has done some good, or perhaps even “failed indeed.” Its much nicer than a lecture and fun to embarrass them with my own attempts at his fantastic version.
I also love that there were conference talks that supported your endeavor this year. No coincidence there I am certain.
I love it! Thanks for finding this word for me as I strive to unify my divisions!
You’ll love this idea too. Had to share!!!
http://fambee.org/blog/2013/01/08/ensign-scraps-into-treasures/
That is a great idea! Thanks for coming back to share with me. We just cleaned out under our end tables and there were STACKS of New Eras and Friend magazines. Now I have a project for the kids to help me with!
And isn’t that what we are called to do? Simply be willing to be new everyday 🙂 I really have enjoyed this post and your thoughts. I came back to read it about four times before finally leaving a comment. I think you’re really on track with this concept. Keep us posted!
I love this post and your new word for the year. But more than that- I love that you have Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible! That made me smile because I’ve never known anyone else who had that besides my husband. ( : I love that thing.
Cocoa, I just wanted to say how much this post has influenced me. I have to admit that at first I was completely and utterly stunned by the beauty of it, and so I got overwhelmed thinking that there is no way I could ever come up with a word that amazing. However, entirely because of you, I persevered and found A Word. And, I guess it’s not so much the word, but my journey in listening to find it that has made such a profound difference to me this week.
Thank you for being remarkable. You are such a light for so many.