Exploring An Ordinary God Who Is In Your Ordinary Life

In our hospitality ministry, we usually don’t know much about who’s going to walk through our doors. But we do know that they’ll be ordinary people. All the people we meet are ordinary people. That’s because all people are ordinary. You included. And me. And God. 

[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]

 

The definition of “ordinary” includes the ideas of something regular, customary or usual; normal; exercising authority by virtue of office not by delegation. 

Related to ordinary is the word, “ordinance” which is an authoritative law, order, or rule; something believed to have been ordained, as by a deity or destiny. 

When these concepts are linked, you discover that an “ordinary” life is one ruled by God, the Ultimate Authority. In reality, you are ordained. The life you live is ordained. In other words, all of your life – the usual, the ordinary, the customary, the regular – is where God is. 

He is not simply in the supernatural or the extra-ordinary. He may be. He may not be. The spectacular can be produced by many. Our minds can play tricks on us. We often want something that is not necessary for our own spiritual good. 

Jesus experienced the ordinary throughout His entire life. Being born in obscurity, growing up relatively unknown for 30 years, walking with His disciples in everyday Jewish life, the vast majority of His earthly existence was in the ordinary. Even the occasional “miracle” was ordinary to Him. That’s just how He lived. He even took ordinary bread and wine and transformed it into His body and blood. Ordinary stuff. 

God normally is in the normal. He is usually in the usual. He is regularly in the regular. He is ordinarily in the ordinary. You are ordained to live an ordinary life where God is. 

This includes the conversations with your children and the arguments with your spouse. In your driving, eating, sleeping, playing, and working, there God is. In the pain, struggles, heartaches, brokenness, and tragedies, God is there. In the good, beautiful, winsome, fresh, joyful, and peaceful, God is there. At birth and at death, God is there. He lives in your ordinary life. 

Since God is in the ordinary, every ordinary person you meet and know has been ordained by God to be in your life at that moment. You’d better pay attention. God is there. Don’t miss him. 

Since God is in the ordinary, you are surrounded by good, beauty, and so much that is worthy of thanks. 

Since God is in the ordinary, every second of your life is transformed into a time to commune, worship, adore, and give thanks. 

God doesn’t simply allow stuff, He is in the stuff. 

He is an Ordinary God living in your ordinary life.

What you and I need is a heart to see Him there.  

Got any ordinary thoughts about this? Any ordinary story? Share below…

Dr. K