Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Living in the ordinariness of life

Recently I've written a couple of posts for other sites about being ordinary for the kingdom. I thought I'd reference them here, on my own blog, so that at least I knew where to find them!

The first post was for Eyes Turned Outwards and was called Becoming Ordinary for the Kingdom of God. You can find it here.

The second was a personal story written for the OA Blog and called Being Ordinary for the Kingdom. You can find that one here. It's due to be posted sometime in the next week. I'll update the link when it's posted on the site.

I wrote about ordinariness because being ordinary is what most of us are most of the time. Occasionally we might do something extraordinary, but most of the time we are living fairly ordinary lives but with a difference. As a Christian I live my ordinary life in the light of the extraordinary God.

For the most part I have no extraordinary stories to tell about how God lead me to a particular person in a particular circumstance. It happens sometimes, but it's not everyday. If I only ever waited for the extraordinary circumstances to come along, I don't suppose I'd connect with many people at all. And what's more I don't suppose I'd spot an ordinary situation in which I can make a difference.

Today, my day is set to be an ordinary day. Here's what I've got to do:

  • Wait for a parcel to be collected and one to be delivered.

  • Outline Acts for the new series we're dong at church.

  • Go to the early prayer meeting (already done)

  • Pay a couple of bills and if possible go to the bank to pay in a cheque.

  • Check what is in the cupboards and plan the evening meal, and cook it.

  • If the parcel arrives this morning, and I get a significant amount of Acts done, then go to the gym this afternoon.

  • Check to see how the person at church who was taken ill over the weekend is doing.

  • Deal with today's post when it arrives.


  • I could go on, but you get the picture. I live an ordinary life. Next week will be ordinary too, except I'm dong something exciting from Sunday to Wednesday but it's a secret!!

    But as I do all these ordinary things, if I keep my eyes open, there might just be an opportunity to do something, something quite ordinary, that will open the way for God to do the kind of extraordinary things he's good at doing.

    So I celebrate being ordinary, and rejoice when I get see the extraordinary God at work.

    1 comment:

    Mercedian said...

    Richard, your schedule looks a lot like mine. For whatever it's worth, I've discovered that if I think in terms of people rather than tasks, it changes my focus about what I am do.

    So, for example, "If I go to Starbucks on Olive, I might see Peter or Hamilton or Erica." That instead of "I need to go to Starbucks to work on my sermon."

    It's not a big difference but it keeps me focused on where I want to be. It's still ordinary though.

    Bruce