Experiencing Jesus in the Ordinary
It is certainly no secret that we live in a world that seeks to grab our attention with big, flashy, extraordinary, out of this world moments. YouTube and social media content gets more and more over the top to try and keep us watching. TV networks and streaming platforms are competing to make us feel something monumental that keeps us entertained. People put on big events to help us reach an emotional or spiritual high, making us feel like this is supposed to be the way life is all the time.
We sometimes live our lives chasing after these experiences as if they should happen every time we begin to get a little bit bored. We want the highs without the lows, the instantaneous fix, the transformation to happen immediately.
It’s the world we live in. It’s the culture we are surrounded by and immersed in. We long for an extraordinary life.
But yesterday, I was reminded that often life is found in the mundane, everyday, ordinary aspects of life.
Pete and Lucille
Yesterday, I officiated a funeral for Pete and Lucille. Pete was 92 years old. Lucille was 90 years old. They had been married for 74 years to each other.
Six days after Pete died, Lucille passed away. She wasn’t sick. She didn’t have any major medical complications. I think that her heart just couldn’t take being apart from the man she spent everyday with for 74 years.
As I learned more about their lives, their family said that it was never just “Pete,” or “Lucille.” When people referred to them, it was “Pete and Lucille.”
They were one, and did life together for over 27,000 days. They lived in the same house together, ate together, raised a family together, worked together, went to church together, served together, and did everything together.
That’s a lot of days together, and no doubt that when he was 18 and she was 16 there were extraordinary feelings of emotional love for each other. I bet they swept each other off of their feet. They were living on cloud nine.
But my guess is that over 27,000 days with each other that they didn’t feel that emotional high every day. I bet most days were pretty ordinary. There were probably days that felt less than ordinary. It was just mundane life.
But yet they stayed together. They did it day by day together. And their love was so deep together that Lucille couldn’t take being apart for more than six days before her heart gave out.
That tells me that God is at work, not just in the mountaintop experiences, but in the ordinary, everyday, mundane tasks of life as well.
Paul in Thessalonica
In 1 Thessalonians 2, the apostle Paul references his time with the people in the church of Thessalonica, and if you read it too quickly, you may not think too much about it. However, what Paul says there, I believe reinforces this truth of God working in the ordinary, everyday moments of our lives.
9 Surely you remember, brothers and sisters, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you… 12 encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.
(1 Thessalonians 2:9, 12)
Paul says that while he was there, he worked alongside them. Most commentators believe that Paul was there for about 3 months. Paul didn’t come in and hold a huge, extraordinary revival and then leave.
No, he stayed there. Day after day he labored with them. They talked together. They ate together. They performed chores together. Ordinary, everyday things, but yet he says that through it all, he was encouraging, comforting and urging them to live lives worthy of God.
The Holy Spirit was doing something through them in those ordinary moments to encourage, comfort, and call them into their union and abundant life in Christ.
Experiencing Jesus in the Ordinary
As you walk through the ordinary, mundane activities of life, know that Christ in you is at work. If you’ve put your faith in Jesus for salvation, He is in you and you are in Him.
In each ordinary moment, you are in union with Christ, and He is giving you love, providing for you, and desiring for you to turn your attention to Him even in those moments. There is intimacy with Him even in the ordinary.
There are things He’s doing through you to impact others in those times as well. You may not even know how Jesus is at work through you when you share a meal, talk in the car, take a walk together, do the dishes together, etc. but Jesus doesn’t need a mountaintop experience to impact others through you.
I encourage you to set your heart and mind on Christ in you and you in Christ as you walk through each and every ordinary aspect of life. Enjoy Him in those moments and participate with Him in what He’s doing through you in those times as well. Don’t waste the ordinary by constantly seeking after the extraordinary.
