These observations can be sharpened through what is known in the psychological literature as sanctification theory. Sanctification theory, developed by Kenneth Pargament and Annette Mahoney, concerns how aspects of life—such as relationships, roles, activities, objects, or events—can be perceived as sacred and imbued with divine significance. My favorite example of sanctification theory comes from the volumes of Every Moment Holy published by Rabbit Room Press.
A perusal of the contents of the volumes of Every Moment Holy reveals how the prayers are directed toward a host of mundane and daily activities, jobs, experiences, and chores:
- For Domestic Days
- For One Who Is Employed
- For Those Who Employ Others
- For Laundering
- For the Preparation of a Meal
- For the Washing of Windows
- For Home Repairs
- For Students & Scholars
- For Waiters & Waitresses
- For the Changing of Diapers
- For Those Employed in Manual Labor
- For One Who Cares for an Infirm Parent
- For Mechanical Repairs
- For Unseen Labors
- For One Who Works the Nightshift
- For Yard Work
- For Getting Dressed
- For Dropping Off a Child at School
- For Those Anxious About Air Travel
- For Nursing Mothers
- Before Shopping
- For the Paying of Bills
- For Those Who Cannot Sleep
- For the Ritual of Morning Coffee
- For a Sick Day
- Before Teaching
- Before a Job Interview
Heavenly Father,
in such menial moments as this—
the changing of a diaper—
I would remember this truth:
My unseen labors are not lost,
for it is these repeated acts of small sacrifice that—
like bright, ragged patches—
are slowly being sewn into a quilt of
lovingkindness that swaddles this child.
I am not just changing a diaper.
By love and service
I am tending a budding heart that,
rooted early in such grace-filled devotion,
might one day be more readily-inclined
to bow to your compassionate conviction—
knowing itself then as both a receptacle
and a reservoir of heavenly grace.
So this little act of diapering—
though in form sometimes felt
as base drudgery—might be
better described as one of ten thousand acts
by which I am actively creating a culture of
compassionate service and selfless love to shape
the life of this family and this beloved child.
So take this unremarkable act of necessary
service, O Christ, and in your economy
let it be multiplied into
that greater outworking of worship and of faith,
a true investment in the incremental
advance of your kingdom across generations.
Open my eyes that I might see this act
for what it is from the fixed vantage of eternity, O Lord—
how the changing of a diaper might
sit upstream of the changing of a heart;
how the changing of a heart might
sit upstream of the changing of the world.
Amen.
This prayer is a profound and moving illustration of sanctification theory, how an unpleasant chore can become suffused with transcendent wonder, beauty, and grace. Following from the last post, notice how the prayer is engaged in shaping, in a top-down process, our concern-based construals. In the act of changing a diaper a perceptual stance is being adopted that brings sacred concerns into view and thereby imbues the mundane with divine significance. The act of changing diapers is re-narrated and this story allows holy affections to flow.
Now, if sanctification can be done on a case by case basis, every moment becoming holy, step back and take a wider view. We can sanctify our entire life story. Given that our identities and self-conceptions are narrative in nature, we can sanctify that story. As I describe in The Shape of Joy, Pamela King calls this a "transcendent narrative identity." Acquiring a transcendent narrative identity involves telling a sacred story about your life, construing your life from a sacred perspective and locating your concerns in the divine.
When we sanctify our lives our treasures are located in heaven and not on earth. And as Jesus said, wherever we place our treasure, there our heart will be also.
