:: sanctify ::

does God sanctify what we're doing because we're doing it for Him? do things like photocopying, teaching, listening, writing become somehow set apart because they're set on an altar?

a girl i went to college with just stopped by my office to tell me a story. she is going soon to a foreign country to use her gifts in ministry. in the mean time, she is presenting to churches and doing things like photocopying her newsletter. the story she wanted to tell me while she was here was that she had gone to kinko's (a.k.a. basic office functions performed for a ridiculous cost) to copy her 2-sided full-color newsletter. after printing the 25 she needed, she saw that it was going to cost her nearly $50. well, she didn't want to pay that much so she talked to someone who ended up taking off a percentage.... about 80% to be exact. this constituted a miracle in this girl's eyes, and now kinko's is also a realm set apart for the Lord's work.

the way i'm relating this might sound cynical, but really it's not meant to be. my question is the one i seem to always come back to: what makes something sacred? if those had been flyers for a secular business, would the discount have been 20% instead of 80? and would God have been given credit? would He have "deserved" credit in the way we think about how He works? are vocations baptised into meaning? are we fruitless until our fruit is missions, or is it a heart turned to God that is the offering He accepts?