The Blessing of OrdinarySample

The Very Good Ordinary

In the beginning, before the wily serpent and the forbidden fruit, the first humans lived in the Very Good of God… But there were no church buildings, no Christian songs, and no Bibles. The story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ hadn’t entered history. And yet…they lived in the Very Good.

They simply participated in garden life, working in the place God put them. The Very Good of God included dirt, hair, and animal droppings, and there were no heroic deeds to be done for God, just the faithful acts of zoo-keeping and waiting for seeds to grow. I believe many folks in the Christian faith live lives of well-hidden spiritual frustration.

They read of the great acts of faith in the Bible and hear of famous Christians today doing amazing things for God and they compare them to their own lives of paying bills, rushing to soccer practices, and cramming in time for daily devotions, and they wonder: “Have I missed something? Is God unhappy with my ordinary life?”

In the midst of the madness of changing diapers, morning commutes, and seemingly mindless meetings, there is a goodness to be found, and we can only find it in Jesus Christ: fully God, fully human. The good King made the way for us to God…and that way embraces being fully human: with all of its hairy, messy, and boring parts included.

When did ordinary come to mean awful? Who told us common and mediocre mean the same thing? What if the nagging sense your spiritual life needs to be more spectacular isn’t the Holy Spirit? And what if the very things we think are in the way, are actually the way?

We’ll make a strong case from Scripture that finding the peace that passes understanding isn’t in some greener spiritual pasture but is in finding the green in your ordinary-right-now-life. Join us as we learn together to be God-honoring and content in the everyday.