SEEING THE SACRED IN EVERYDAY LIFE. 8 MAR 2017

The purpose of this article is to unshroud the spiritual blessings of daily mundane life. Today, I visited with a friend at a coffee shop. He recently fell asleep on the Interstate & hit a stopped semi-truck at full speed. As we travel down life’s highways, do we fall asleep spiritually?? And likewise, when we fall asleep spiritually, we can be seriously crippled like my friend. Fortunately, it was not a lethal accident. My hope is that this small post helps wake us up to the spiritual deepness underneath the veneer of the events of everyday life. People can drive by a place day in day out & never notice it. We do the same spiritually. We need to reclaim our spiritual ears & eyes.

THE SMALL MUNDANE THINGS OF LIFE. Christians are called by many lofty names: saint, pilgrim, priest, ambassador, & servant to name some. And I have written articles geared to those things, but today I felt led to address the countless “trivial”, routine, mundane, repetitious ordinary things of life. This is what makes up so much of our lives, & it may seem purposeless, and unspiritual…and yet the divine presence, His lessons, & blessings are in the mundane. “I have set the LORD always before me; because He is at my right hand…”(A) The presence of the Lord is so important, as Christ was leaving he told his disciples that he would leave his presence with them: “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”(B) And if we find ourselves not sensing His presence, He tells us how to find Him: “ ‘You will seek me & find me when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD.”(C) Or to rephrase this, God wants our love. The kind of love that craves to be with the person it loves. “Love YHWH your God with all your heart, & with all your soul, and with all your strength.”(D) Like a woman who wants to be first priority in her lover’s heart, likewise heavenly Father wants that kind of priority…if we seek Him with that kind of sincere love, He will be found.

HOW IS GOD IN THIS EVENT?? Are these people here in my life by divine appointment?…are these circumstances by divine appointment?…what are the hungers of my heart at this moment?…what are the questions of my heart?…what are the spiritual mysteries in this event? The divine will be woven into the events of your life, if His presence is there. The daily events expose our priorities & attitudes. At times our attitude towards an event is more significant than the event. We are warned that we may entertain an angel (messenger of God) unaware. Some messengers of God may not be angels per se, but humans in the role of passing on His words. Remember that we of the Body of Christ are His body here on earth. We are His feet & hands to do His work. Sometimes the most trivial events end up giving us a monumental epiphany.

TURNING THE ORDINARY INTO THE SACRED. Yahshua was always turning ordinary events into scriptural events. Someone interrupts his sermon, by taking apart the roof, and he doesn’t miss a beat, it becomes a great event. He is asked by his mother to deal with their wine running out at a wedding, and he asks, “What concern is that to you and to me?”(E) Basically, who cares? But he goes ahead & deals with the problem with a miracle. Now this was not exactly a disaster, but the principle holds true…disasters and needs drive us to our knees to beg for a miracle. These needs become points where God can step in and show us His love & power. So we see the principle Yahshua taught: in losing, we gain. So our mundane problems are opportunities. Jesus Christ (Yahshua) means a lot for our ordinary lives. He says he comes to give us more abundant lives. It appears while here, he seized each moment to teach a new lesson. For instance, he washes his disciples feet to teach humility & servanthood. As we walk through our daily life, if we walk uprightly we are promised: “no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”(F)

We are told that whatsoever we do to the least significant person in our lives, we have done it to Christ. So that insignificant person in that ordinary day may be the litmus test of how much you love Christ. Yahshua taught that we should repay the evil that people do to us with good. This requires that we know what good and evil are in order to select what to repay with. In these small events of our day, we show our love for God. We are asked to live lives worthy of our high calling. I suggest that we do this by paying attention to the small things. Indeed Christ taught just this. If we are not faithful in the small things, how shall we be faithful in the large?(G)

May your everyday routines be blessed my friend.
(A) PS 16:8 (B) JN 14:18 (C) JER 29:11-14 (D) DT 6:4-5 (E) JN 2:4 (F) PS 84:11b (G) LK 16:10