A Quick Mental Devotion

Devotion; the act of devoting, giving over, doing in honor of, accomplishing something for someone or something else. Devotions. What an interesting concept. We have no problem doing "spiritual" devotions, commonly understood as reading the Bible and spending time in prayer, and I think this is truly a good thing. However, I wonder to think of the possibilities of expanding our categories a little bit here. Though such reading and prayer certainly do much to enrich our spirituality, would this simple action perhaps better be termed an intellectual devotion? After all, in studying we are primarily opening our mind to God. Sure these devotions augment one's spirituality, but the primary action that is being done is intellectual study. I do not mean this in such a way as to limit the concept, but simply to categorize it. Once categorized, there is much room left for other devotions as well; surely we are not encapsulated by our intellect. As such, here is an extremely short list of other facets that could be enriched by being practiced devotionally. Besides the above-renamed intellectual devotions, there could be:

-physical devotions with our exercise
-interpersonal devotions with our relationships
-intrapersonal devotions with our own knowledge of self
-vocational devotions in or occupation
-spiritual devotions in our meditation
-artistic devotions in our creativity
-culinary devotions in our meal contents and preparation
-marital devotions in engagement of their spouse
-reflective devotions in our contemplations
-aesthetic devotions in our designs

Here, even a quick search from a concordance demands more of us than the common understanding of devotions can give...especially if you don't skip over the OT sections (see Joshua 6:21)! How greatly this impacts how we are to understand what it means for us to be devoted to God!

What in our lives do we devote to God? How much more of ourselves we have to offer to God?

Devotion.

What will you devote to God? How will you be devoted to him?

-Drew

unable to identify statue's maker. Photograph by Fred_T of Flickr.