Everyday JoysSample

LIVING AT THE INTERSECTION OF ORDINARY AND DIVINE

These days, I am trying to remember to invite God into all the moments of my life. Not just the big, the extraordinary, or the most desperate, but the everyday, the ordinary, and even the mundane moments, as well. I want to seek His presence over Monday’s breakfast and on Thursday afternoons. I’ve made it my goal to turn to His Word first thing each morning and to ask Him to bless my rest each night. I talk to Him in the car, in the shower, and as I write. And to my utter delight, I’m finding that He is always there. Just as He has promised to be.

Seeking God in all the many moments of my day is a practice I’ve been, well, practicing for a while now. But I didn’t always. It took a few years and a few trips through the Bible to convince myself that my continual chatter and reliance on Him was not just tolerated but sought, welcomed, and even treasured. (By the Lord of All Creation! I mean, how amazing is that?)

Of course, I’m still learning and practicing this total dependence on God. I suspect that I will be all the days of my life. But the one thing I’m seeing over and over again—the thing I am just so in awe of—is the way He always seeks to meet with me. Even when I neglect and forget Him, He pours His divine presence into my oh-so-ordinary life.

The words of Psalm 23 offer a glimpse of just how pervasive His pres­ence is. I sometimes think we turn to this psalm so often that it’s become overly familiar, and we miss the depth of its power and promise. Just look at some of the verbs that describe what God does for us, like leads, refreshes, and guides. And the places He is with us: beside quiet waters, in the darkest valleys, and in the presence of enemies.

As God’s children, we are never beyond His reach or out of His pres­ence. And when we seek Him, there is nowhere He will not be found. We are always at the intersection of ordinary and divine.

Challenge: Read the words of Psalm 23 aloud. Hear them and hide them away in your heart.