Extraordinary Life

We encounter God in the ordinariness of life, not in the search for spiritual highs and extraordinary, mystical experiences, but in our simple presence in life.

Brennan Manning

Encountering God in the ordinariness of life. This could be considered an oxymoron. How does one put encounter with God and ordinary in the same context? I find this an interesting concept. It made me question, how much of what God is wanting to bestow upon us is lost because we can’t equate the fact that the majesty of God, His presence, resides with us in our ordinary everyday life?

 
How would our outlook change if we took this idea and ran with it. If we began to believe that the omnipresent God is with us every moment of every day. This then would include the “ordinary” moment of our day. The part of our day when we car pool our children, clean dirty sheets, stand in line at the grocery store, wait to renew our drivers licence, or when we fight with our husbands and argue with our teenage kids. God is with us when we are doing the most mundane chore and when we are at our worst.

…Often it’s in the middle of our most mundane task that He lets us know He is there for us. We realize, then, that there can be no “ordinary” moments for people who live their lives with Jesus

Michael Card

If there are no ordinary moments for believers in Christ, then these moments have to extraordinary. Hmmm then the ordinary in my life is actually extraordinary. There is so much strength and power that exudes from the word extraordinary. Think about this concept for a moment. Ponder the significance of what Christ and the Holy Spirit give us. We, those of us who believe in Christ live extraordinary lives. Not ordinary lives, extraordinary lives.

 
Interesting thought…now how can we apply this to our lives? Ask yourselves, are you (we) living up to this extraordinary life that we were freely given because of what Jesus did for us on the cross? Do we operate in the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us? Do we daily die to self so that we might live? So much to examine….BUT don’t get overwhelmed! Here’s the thing…we already have what it takes to overcome obstacles in our path to leading extraordinary lives. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice and the gift of the Holy Spirit we CAN lead these extraordinary lives! The only thing we have to do is be willing to listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling us and then follow through with what He is encouraging us to do. The Holy Spirit does the work in us….we just have to let Him.

Here’s to living the extraordinary!