Last Updated on March 27, 2018 by Stacy Averette
Jesus in the Ordinary
Jesus Christ is our Supreme Example of how we should live and he wasn’t Jesus, God among us, just at church (the temple). He was Jesus out and about among people. He went to weddings and dinner parties. He had cookouts by the lake and hung out with friends. He was part of a family and a community. He worked and played and slept.
He did a lot of ordinary things.
But God was present in every ordinary thing and the mundane became sacred.
And he knew it.
Jesus knew that his primary purpose was to be engaged in teaching and demonstrating God’s ways (Luke 21:41-52). What changed everything was the connection he made with his purpose and the people and circumstances he encountered. What he said and how he said it; his response to difficult people and circumstances; his care and compassion made the difference.
Today, I’ll do some laundry and prepare a meal or three. I’ll talk on the phone and buy some groceries; check email, write, and read a book.
You may drive a truck, comfort a grieving friend, go shopping, sit in a class or a meeting, run a business, or hold a sick child.
We do a lot of ordinary things.
But God is there.
Really.
He is.
Right where you are, in the middle of your ordinary things.
And your mundane becomes sacred.
So often we hurry to get a task or a day done so that we can “get on to the more important things”. But God is present in all of it. The laundry, the meeting, the illness, the vacation, the trial. Every. Single. Thing.
Your ordinary is an opportunity to be like Christ teaching and demonstrating God’s ways to the world around you.
WWJD? “What would Jesus do?” is not just a religious fad and a slogan on a wristband. It is living the Jesus-Way in everything; knowing that because God is present the mundane is sacred.
Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything. I Peter 4:11
What are you doing today?
May God’s bright presence be evident in everything you do through Jesus.
