Finding God

My mother sent me the book, "Finding God" by Dr. Larry Crab. I've read two chapters or so and it is completely shaking my world. Its premise is that we are on the earth to serve God, not ourselves. And frequently as Christians, we manipulate our faith and try to manipulate God to serve ourselves, to make our life more pleasant and happy. When our focus should be on serving and praising God. No self-help, fix the inner child, heal my insecurities, make myself a better person and a better Christian. We are to be following and walking with God. Talking with Him. Which I include praying, reading the bible, fellowshiping, worshiping and telling others about Him.

So what do I do with the trips to Target to get toilet paper and hair conditioner and the trips to the mall to get the new pair of cargo pants, to the movie theatre to see an action movie, and on and on. The daily things we do to make our life go.

What about work, is my job, the way I earn money to function on this earth, is it helping me walk with God. It makes me want to sell all I own and go to some plot of land in Montana and be a monk or something. But I can't imagine God wants us all to be monkish, because that seems really cultish.

So it goes back to the standard line, do everything for God. Brushing your teeth for God, typing at work for God, developing a new drug for God, but its all this stuff that I do that gets in the way of my walk. Are we supposed to do less in general.

Sometimes I wonder if people a 100 years or more in the past had it easier to walk with God, but they certainly worked a lot harder and longer that we do now, so that doesn't make much sense. We have efficiency but we do more and it is beyond busyness!

So for me, does my desire to write or create art for God come from a desire to do it for God or to do it for me?