Appreciating the Extra-Ordinary in the Ordinary

Today’s an ordinary day.

I got up, went to the bathroom, looked at my face in the mirror as I shaved. I showered, dressed, put washing in the washing machine, drunk tea, read my Bible, (Song of Solomon – that’s a challenge!) reflected, prayed, hung the washing out, ate a bowl of Shreddies, drunk coffee, cleaned my teeth…

Later I’ll go to Men’s Shed, meet Roy to play chess… There are emails to send, friends to contact…  

It’s an ordinary Monday morning.

We live in a world that craves the extra-ordinary, the exciting, the best. Advertisements promote the best clothes, homes, bodies, cars, phones, food, entertainment…

Those of us involved in churches want the best… teaching, love, worship, mutual-support, prayer, community involvement… At our church yesterday Andy was talking about revival with passion and conviction…

It’s understandable and commendable to want the best.

I’m enjoying Tish Harrison Warren’s ‘Liturgy of the Ordinary’:

‘A sign hangs on the wall in a New Monastic Christian community house: ‘Everyone wants a revolution no one wants to do the dishes.’ I was, and remain a Christian who longs for revolution, for things to be made new and whole in beautiful and big ways. What I am slowly seeing is that you can’t get to the revolution without doing the dishes.’

Some suggest that the ordinary is a necessary, perhaps boring means to attain the extra-ordinary and wonderful end…

It’s in the dailiness of the Christian faith – the making the bed, the doing the dishes, the praying for our enemies, the reading the Bible, the quiet, the small – that God’s transformation takes root and grows.’

I’m musing on being grateful for and seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary…

…Seeing the ‘extra-ordinary’ in my ordinary face in the mirror first thing in the morning is one thing… but seeing, appreciating and being grateful for the extra-ordinary in the ordinary clean washing, bowl of shreddies, old men at Men’s Shed, game of chess with Roy… is simply the best.