Finding God in the Ordinary

It has been tough to find time to write.  The routine of life has consumed our spare time.  Do you go through seasons of life like this?  Over these past few weeks we have been in the process of getting Lynn ready for her fifth year as an Elementary School Counselor, preparing our son for his freshman year in High School, refinancing our house, celebrating our son's 14th birthday, hosting friends for coffee, and officiating a funeral for a friend's relative...

After climbing the spiritual mountain tops of this Summer's Sabbatical, these past few weeks have delivered me to the lower ends of the valley.  Nothing dramatic, no spiritual epiphanies or insights.  Just the routine, the day to day stuff of life...

I have learned something about God during these concluding weeks of this Sabbatical.  I have come to realize that for as much as we yearn to seek God in a mountaintop encounter, He more often than not meets us in the routine of life...

Christians have long realized the value of the ordinary.  For those who grew up in liturgical churches,
the longest period of the Christian Calendar is the time from Easter to Christmas.  These 33 weeks are called 'Ordinary Time' and are symbolized through the color green.

Finding God in the Ordinary means different things to different people.  The Apostle Paul knew of the value of finding God in the ordinary when he wrote in I Corinthians 10:31 'So whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.'  This would make a great life-verse, as Paul encourages us to see that our daily activities are just as honorable as our time together at Church.

I found God in the Ordinary of life through doing the dishes, having coffee with a friend, preparing a funeral service, weeding the garden, and running errands with my family.  God shows up in the most unexpected of places, surprising us and reminding us that all of life belongs to Him.

The mountain tops are enjoyable, but it is in the valleys that He finds us...