I have continued to ponder on the fact that my 'ordinary' moments of life are no less God designed than any other times. Of course I know that…but day by day I come to k-n-o-w that more and more! God is in (what we call) ordinary!
But like I talked about in the previous post in relation to the 'ordinary' black and white butterflies, I am caused to ask myself if I should even look at life as having 'ordinary' moments.
In language expression we use a whole bunch of words — like ordinary, regular, normal, routine, usual, — in order to say that nothing has happened which we would rate as 'special' or 'significant' or 'unusual'.
In some ways life is full of the 'ordinary' - just plodding along and pressing on with the daily life tasks that have to be repeated day after day, week after week, year after year. And God has created life on this earth to be on a repeated constant schedule of -
days (sunrise and sunset, evening and morning),
weeks (creation, and institution of sabbath rest),
months (the moon's magnetic effect on the earth),
and years (the cycle of seasons).
I'm not saying we ought to do away with, or ignore these divine patterns put in place for our good. It is always going to be good to live according to God's design. And we need words to describe life, and so yes, words like 'normal' and 'ordinary' do get used.
However, what my challenge is to myself, and to you with me, is that these patterns and life's repetitive functions and activities are not ordinary, in the sense that they are not less significant or less vital, or less divine, than any other moment or task.
Every aspect of life, every moment of life, every decision of life is significant, important, and a place where we can either glorify God or fail to glorify Him.
'Doing all to the glory of God' (1 Cor 10:31) means ALL moments are significant and important opportunities to do that.
God is looking for every one of our moments and thoughts to be ones in which we acknowledge him (Proverbs 3:5-6), seek him, welcome him, honour and obey him, submit to him, trust him, look to him, love him, follow him, rest in him and rejoice in him….because we need him. Without him, we are nothing and can do nothing (John 15:5). And yet, I know how easy it is to go through what we think are 'ordinary' moments, less aware of all that than we should be.
AWE is something that we don't think a lot about. I know I mostly think about it when someone uses the word 'awesome' ..again! But though its 'overuse' has often irritated me, I am caused to re-think my irritation. Everything ought to be awesome!
We are apt to rate our life, and compare ourselves and our experiences to those of others, or ours of yesterday, or our own expectations, so we don't think too many things rate as 'awesome'. But the only 'rating' that really matters is God's - not others, and not our own. And we are meant to line up our rating, our view, our opinion, with God's.
….that brings me to one quick aside - there is only one thing in this world that is totally not awesome and not God's design for his creation, not his plan, not his purpose, not his will and desire, and that thing is sin in all its forms and effects. That is neither ordinary nor awesome. Sin is sad, horrific, distorting, disgusting, abhorrent, disgraceful...
Thus everything in God's design and purposes - every moment, every aspect of his creation as he made it, is awesome! It's just a process for us to recognise the 'awesomeness' that is already present in God's plans and purposes. Our entire day, every day, should be that of awe—of living in the greatness of the presence, power and provision of God.
We need to bring the 'awe-some' into the ordinary, not to cheapen it or trivialise the awesome, but to enliven the 'ordinary' to the level God wants it to be.
This doesn't mean that we need to have to live on the constant high adrenalin of physical and emotional expressions of perpetual excitement. It just means a level of heart-filling, mind-inspiring, life-transforming thankfulness to God that changes our perspective on life…. which can be in quiet contemplative contentment, and thoughts of thankfulness, without any need for constant exuberance….not that we might still at times be exuberant in how we express it!
This is when I am once again caused to realise how far short I fall in honouring God as I should, of how finite I am—my head feels like it couldn't contemplate or contain thoughts of so much awe. But our goal should be to see life more and more from God's perspective and less and less from our own.
He doesn't want me to live like life is 'ordinary' but to see life as AWE-dinary - filled with AWE—of him!
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