Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters. 

- Colossians 3.23, New Revised Standard Version

Doug Lyman left a Benedictine monastery for the world of high finance. It's not the way it looks.

Lyman's Christian quest took him from the hermetically sealed world of fundamentalism to the smug righteousness of liberalism to the convolutions of philosophy to the United States Marine Corps to the Benedictine cloister, where he learned that even vows of poverty require financial savvy. In the face of bankruptcy, he learned that money, like everything, carries a spiritual component.

He also noticed that a great deal of his spiritual counseling involved financial planning. "I would say, 'I'll pray for you, but let's make a budget." As a schoolteacher (the secular work he undertook to pay the bills) he found his colleagues facing retirement with no pensions. So Lyman left his order and went to work for an asset management company co-founded by a Hindu nun.

He now calls himself a "suffering-prevention specialist."

Paul, as Luther long ago insisted, does not make sharp distinctions between the secular and the spiritual when it comes to ministry. Whatever work we perform, whatever need we find to meet, the apostle commands, put yourselves into it. Work heartily (American Standard); do it from the heart (CEB); do it enthusiastically (HCS). The Greek literally reads, "from the soul." Paul's admonition, and Lyman's example, remind us that there are no sacred and secular activities, only holy and unholy ones. The rule becomes simple: eliminate the profane; attack the Godly.

What task does your hand find to do today? Go at it full boar, tear into it like a shark on a seal pod! You are a suffering-prevention specialist working under the authorization of the Suffering Servant. I'll pray for you, but let me make you a hamburger. I'll pray for you, but let's build you a house. Throw your soul into service, and bring glory to God.

For more on this story, see The Monk Who Left the Monastery to Fix Broken Retirement Plans