(All New Orleans 2009 posts can be found here)
The idea of “unspectacular work” has been my metaphorical matrix for the week. We are in New Orleans, but we’re not partying in the city. In fact, we have seen very little of the city other than the neighborhoods that we’re working in. And this is the way it should be; to go on a mission trip that is more vacation than mission makes one a “vacationary”, not a missionary.
This unspectacular work we’re doing will have a very sweet reward: someone will again have a home to live in. But all of our 
work? Very few people will really know about it; it will appear in no newspapers; we’ll go home and have no higher standing in our community. We’re not here for the fame or to be seen by the eyes of men.
In the same way, the unspectacular and mostly unseen work of the spiritual life – namely prayer, meditation on God’s word, and acting in obedience – is seen not by a home-owner but by the universe-maker. And even more wonderful is that the result of this is what are called “The Fruit of the Spirit” – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
This unspectacular work of spiritual life stands in defiance against the flashy, trickster, money-begging televagelist; it is contrary to the deeds of those who perform them to be seen by the eyes of men. But this unspectacular work is the only way to true joy.
A relationship with Jesus is no work at all, and yet it is hard work, with occasional flashes of excitement and a constant sense of joy. Our work here together this week has created a bond; as God’s children, it should be more common that we bond while joining in the work that God is doing.
Walking “by the Spirit” will lead us to live a life that is considered unspectacular by most of the world. Why? Because when people wish to crown us as their king, God, or messiah we, like Jesus, will walk away from this earthly elevation by men to follow the will of God, even when that leads to suffering and death. It is also considered unspectacular to have a talent with which you could make a fortune and go to Bolivia to be a school teacher in a poor Mennonite school like my friend Arlie Peters did.
These unspectacular deeds are the deeds of people who live by the Spirit, and I want to continue to be one of them.
Galatians 5:16-26
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
