When Things Seem Mundane

I admit I've been reluctant to blog lately.  But then, one of those profound thoughts hit me-- the kind of idea that only comes at strange moments like walking to your car or getting out of the shower or peeling a potato.

Regardless of whether my activities feel profound and meaningful, they are still the things that I do for a living.  And the people who support what I do for a living might actually want to know those things too, right?  As Oswald Chambers reminded me this morning (My Utmost for His Highest),

"The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes.  It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us.  Even if we do not want medieval halos, we want something that will make people say-- What a wonderful man of prayer he is!  What a pious devoted woman she is!  To the contrary, if you are rightly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the sublime height where no one ever thinks of noticing  you, all that is noticed is that the power of God comes through you all the time... The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it actually is."

Lately, there's been a lot of 'human life' going on.  Not only the realities of my own life preparing for marriage, but those of my roommates, bopping in and out of our apartment; those of my colleagues in ministry who are re-financing and renovating and sending kids to college; those of my family members searching for and acquiring new jobs; those of my neighbors and friends having birthdays, going to the grocery store, celebrating, mourning, etc, etc.

And in the midst of it all, I don't have many amazing moments of revelation with God.  Most of the time when I peel potatoes, I am just peeling potatoes.  Yet, every now and then, I remember that I live an extraordinary life.  Its extraordinariness does not come from my travels or adventures or brilliant ideas, I hope, but from devotion to God.  To be truly faithful, patient, loving, kind, self-controlled, and submitted to God is an extraordinary goal in life.  And that goal gets played out not at conferences or big events, but in my daily relationships and choices.

Maybe not marvelous, but perhaps not so terribly mundane either.  It's life.  By the grace of God, a life becoming more devoted to Jesus.