We live in a media saturated society, dominated by the sound bite. It occurs to me that because this is so we are perhaps subconsciously being conditioned to think of life in terms of sound bites. The problem with sound bites is that they highlight the “big story”, which is usually sensational. Two things here come to mind. One is that most of our lives involve things media will deem “ordinary”. We get up, we go to work, we interact with others, and we wrestle with problems or work though the effects of problems. Then we come home and perhaps eventually crash out in bed or zone out watching T.V. Hopefully, in all those hours of our waking life we spend time with the ones we love. Second, because of the sound bite, we may come to think that God is only interested in the sensational things of life or that He only responds to these.
I am struck by the thought that our God is a God of the ordinary, as well as the extraordinary. That His presence is actually known as we go about doing ordinary things like washings dishes, folding clothes, typing on our computer, going grocery shopping or commuting on the road. Several centuries back, a “lowly” French monk named brother Lawrence spoke of practicing the presence of God. What he meant by this was our need to continually seek to be intentionally aware of God in our lives. This is something that I believe God wants of us, to be intentionally aware of Him. John 17.3 reminds us that Jesus came so we could know the one true God and to know Him is life.
How does that awareness come about? We ask for it and by God’s empowerment, which He freely gives, we seek to be intentional about inviting God into our day. So, before our feet hit the ground in the morning, we can say, “Lord I acknowledge you, and invite you into this day.” Right before our first meal of the day, we can acknowledge Him with thanksgiving. We can read a passage of the Bible and ask God “to speak to us.” When we get on the road we can ask God to lead us into the paths of His life. Perhaps in our work space we can have reminders of God; crosses, a picture, a verse from scripture are all possibilities. As things come up in our work day that challenges us, we can invite God to come and work in our lives. When we have our lunch, we can give thanks again and offer up prayer for ourselves or others. We can pay attention to our thought life. What is on our minds? Does the Bible have anything to say about what is going on in our heads? More than we realize. As the day comes to a close, we can be reminded that just as the sun sets every day, so another day of our life has set and one day will set permanently. We do not live forever here on earth. Let’s allow nature to witness to us that we only have so much time in our ordinary lives. Let that motivate us to seek the things then that will span beyond this life, to acknowledge God and our relationship to Him and others.
As the day closes, we can say with the Psalmist, “Behold all you that stand in the presence of the Lord, let us bless Lord”(Psalm 134)….Let’s bless Him for this day He has given us and ask for His protection and rest as we lay ourselves down to sleep.
Our lives are ordinary lives made up of ordinary concerns that God extraordinarily cares about. God’s promise is that He will reveal Himself in the ordinary circumstances of life. Let’s acknowledge Him in all that we do by His grace so we can know Him in the ordinary things of life. To know Him is life. And that is extraordinary!
