Life can be mundane, if you let it.
Ordinary days filled with the same old, same old. Same routines, same chores, same battles.
Every so often a little taste of different comes along. A trip. An outing. A conversation with an old friend. Something a little out of the ordinary. Something as small as the first walk of spring after a long winter.
These tastes of different bring flavor to ordinary days, but sometimes its hard to seek out the different and let it overpower the ordinary, even for a moment.
The ordinary takes over. Covering life like a thick wool blanket. Making the future seem like nothing more then more of the same. A little bit of Ecclesiastics thinking creeps in, you know the "meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless" kind of thinking?
Have you ever been there?
Even with the adventure of China and bringing Suhn home, the fear of living nothing more than an ordinary life grips me.
And then I read about Brother Lawrence and some much needed perspective comes breezing in, removing the wool blanket.
Do you know Brother Lawrence? He was a monk whose job for 15 years was washing pots and pans. A simple, unglamourous job. The SAME job for 15 years.
And this is what he said,
"My day-t0-day life consists of giving God my simple loving attention."
He also said, "We should offer our work to Him before we begin, and thank Him afterwards for the privilege of having done them for His sake."
And that, I believe is the secret to an extraordinary, un-ordinary life. It is not so much in what we do with our day-to-day, but the attitude we do it with as we remember who we do it for.
Whether he calls us to do "great things" or places us in obscurity, we need to remember we are living in the presence of God and that every action we take, no matter how small, is for His sake.
This practice of living in His presence brings joy and purpose to the most mundane of lives and that is an extraordinary thing!
*Brother Lawrence quotes were taken from the book God, Discover His Character by Bill Bright.
5 comments:
wow that's convicting!
Beautiful! Cindy
I've had those days...saying to myself, "if I have to fill this sippy cup up one more time" or something like, "one more time doing the dishes" you said it best, the ordinary takes over. And you are right...it's all about our attitude! Praise God I'm living in the presence of Him ~He's all the audience I need! Thanks for sharing.
This was great to read Meg. I loved the quote of giving God my "simple loving attention"! That does not seem hard.
amen and amen!
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