As if you're doing it for the Lord

I think this has got to be one of the most frequently misused ideas in modern Christianity. So often I've heard this phrase used to try to turn people into paranoid perfectionists, afraid that somehow if they don't do something really well they're failing as Christians. The irony, I think, is that the center of Christian beliefe is that God has loved us in spite of our shortcomings, in spite of our sin and rebellion, so if we are doing things for Him, wouldn't it be with the knowledge that He knows we are but dust? And yet people scare others away from bringing their honnest, if feeble, offerings by implying that one has to strive to be excellent in everything or else they must not really be doing things as if for God. That is an absolutely ludicrous idea. It takes us out of God's grace and back into the trap that all other religions end up boiling down to - you must save yourself: By doing this, by saying that, by striving to become perfect, by dedication and effort you must gain your salvation. NO! God has provided attonement, He has granted forgiveness, and He has given us His spirit to live inside us and help guide us out of the destructive ways we are mired in in this life. His hand upholds us, not our own two legs. I think that 'doing things as if for God' means with a spirit of communion with and service toward Him. It means looking for His hand in every day life, looking for what he is doing and choosing your actions to follow along with His, it means letting Him work through you and acting with a heart that is in sync. with His. It's not how well you are able to do things or how hard you try to be perfect in everything, it's listening for His guidance, and dedicating all the sucess to Him. We are very limited beings, we simply cannot do everything to our utmost - overdrive is called overdrive for a reason. We have to choose what to focus more effort on and what we have to resign to the 'backburner'. But even the things we can't spend all our efforts on we can do with a heart that is in step with the Spirit of God, with love, with mercy and justice, with the desire to give Him glory and thanks. That is doing things as if for the Lord.