So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Romans 12:1 (MSG)
Everyday Ordinary – The Ordinary Series – Part 7
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
“Take your everyday, ordinary life” – the normal things about you; work, personality, hang-ups, skills, joys, failures, school, learning, relationships, kids, spouse, partner, business, creativity, likes, dislikes, humour, tears, anger, passions, loves, hopes, ideas… whatever it is that makes up your life, no matter what it is or how ordinary it seems – don’t be ashamed, or timid, or too tired to bring it before God. Christ understands ordinary. He gets it. He THRIVES IN IT.
Every day, ordinary life is where the magic happens.
We’ve been reading Roald Dahl books to the kids lately (just finished the “BFG”). In his most recent book, The Minpins, the very last line reads:
“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”
– Roald Dahl, “The Minpins“
It's a myth that your favorite and most valuable moments will be seen by hundreds, applauded by thousands or make you millions. MYTH – LIE – FABLE! Your life will not be better if you become more famous, make more money, or are “more successful.” If you are not happy now; if you are not content with who you are and what you are becoming, no amount money or fame or success will change that. Only YOU can. “Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.” And for yourself.
It starts with the embrace.
Eternity has already been woven into our hearts. Jesus wakes us up to his presence and love that has always been there and yet has been waiting to be more present to us. I quoted Richard Rohr a few days ago, he said, “Your soul is who you are in God and who God is in you. You can never really lose your soul; you can only fail to realize it, which is indeed the greatest of losses: to have it but not have it (Matthew 16:26).”
Don’t let your ordinariness blind you of how wonderful and divine and miraculous your regular life actually is. Allow Jesus – both his humanity and divinity – to wake you up to the wonder and redemption that is happening within and around you. Look for him not just in the grand and extravagant and crowded moments of life, but in the quiet, in the suffering, in the simple joy, in the mundane, in the normal.
My sweetest moments are the ones where I catch my husband staring at me while we’re watching reruns of Seinfeld; my kids screaming about at a new bug they’ve found on the pavement; the sun coming out from behind the clouds; the roar of the ocean as I dive in; a phone call with a dear friend; encouraging someone in the line at the supermarket; hanging with my girls on a Friday night talking about how we fell in love; the first drops of rain after a scorching hot day… the normal stuff.
It is all Divine.
Our prayer for you today is that you would discover the divine and wonderful right in the middle of wherever you are right now. If you don’t, I fear you’ll spend the rest of your life waiting and looking and searching for something that is already yours.
Peace,
Lizzy and Jesse Milani.
Find us:
Instagram: @lizzy.milani @jessemilani and @pocketfuel
Twitter: @lizzymilani @jessemilani and @pktfuel
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