People often ask why we talk about “the everyday” or “the ordinary” so often at Sojourn. So, I would like to give a bit of a robust explanation.
You see, the fact is that life is not comprised of extraordinary events with the occasional opportunity to do something ordinary appearing every now and then. On the contrary, life is comprised of rather ordinary events with the occasional opportunity appearing on the horizon to experience something extraordinary. Of course, we would prefer the former be true rather than the latter. We all want to do something big, significant, and meaningful with our lives. We all want to make a difference. And hear me say, it isn’t bad to desire to make a difference in the world. The only issue is that we often so desire to be a part of something big and extraordinary that we often minimize the importance of the small and ordinary. And, empirical evidence should prove that most of our lives won’t be lived in the extraordinary, but the ordinary. Yet we still hold on to the notion that we are going to be presented with an opportunity so big and so radical, that it changes the world. And in so doing, we often hold out on everyday opportunities that we deem to be so small and so mundane, they are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But, is this really the way to view the Christian life? Is this what Jesus had in mind when He called His disciples to follow Him? Was it a call for every believer to abandon the normal rhythms of society and pursue ministry in the realm of the spectacular? Was Jesus envisioning a church that was always on mission to experience the extraordinary? Probably not. So, let’s talk.
We often read the pages of the Bible with all of it’s illuminating statements, miraculous happenings, and faithful characters, and we think to ourselves, “If I’m really following God, I should be experiencing this kind of stuff, shouldn’t I?” We read about mighty men of God like Joshua or the Apostle Paul, or faith-filled women like Ruth, and we can’t help but think, “Why isn’t my life congruent with these men and women? I mean, wasn’t the Bible written to give us an example of what the Christian life was meant to look like?”
And, therein lies the first problem with how we think about the everyday Christian life. The dilemma is that somewhere, somehow, we have bought into the contemporary Christian propaganda that a faithful follower of Christ is supposed to lead a life filled with radical and risky stories of sacrifice and struggle. Everywhere young evangelicals have surrendered to the call of a few eloquent, and no doubt, gifted communicators to “give more, serve more, do more, and ultimately to find the most difficult place in the world to go and do it.” These extremely public, wildly popular, and larger than life pastors, have often highlighted the most difficult passages in the Bible, sometimes alienating them from their context or original meaning, and have perhaps, unintentionally raised the bar to an un-Biblical standard for what it means to be a faithful disciple of Christ. Often times using stories like the rich young ruler who was told to sell all that he had and give it to the poor, or even stories of miraculous conversions and headings from the book of Acts, these pastors have urged young people to never settle for the status quo of the average American life. They have used statistics, illustrations, videos, and just about everything imaginable to get their message across, and the message is simple… “What would Jesus do in a world with so much need?” The message is generally infused with a guilt-based, sometimes poverty driven theology, that calls people to examine their lack of whole-hearted participation in God’s global mission to the most impoverished and unreached places on the planet. Although this movement cites Biblical examples, it lacks a holistic understanding of the mission of God and it is sorely absent of Biblical integrity. It extracts God from working in and through the normal rhythms of Christian’s lives in American society, and emphasizes the need to go and do ministry “out there.” This, of course has led to a discontent generation of young Christians who are missing the crux of the Biblical narrative. What do I mean by that?
Well, believe it or not, the Bible wasn’t written to show us how radical we ought to be in our pursuit to know God and make Him known. It was written to reveal how radical God is in His pursuit of us. This of course, is primarily demonstrated to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ, as He has done the most radical and extraordinary thing imaginable. He, being fully God and yet fully Man, entered into human history by being born into a cattle stall, He then lived most of His life in marginal obscurity while walking in perfect obedience to the Father, He was righteous in every way, He overcame the temptation mankind failed to overcome, He was falsely accused, savagely beaten, mocked, and He was eventually crucified between two thieves, all so that He could demonstrate just how radical His love is for us! Thus, the point of the Bible is not about little people doing big things for God. It’s about a big God doing big things for little people.
Now, there is no doubt many radical things that following Christ will demand of us. According to Jesus, He demands our entire life (Matthew 16:24-25). So, in light of the call to lay down everything, even our lives, I think it is safe to say that following Jesus will be a radical endeavor.
But let’s not forget, the most extraordinary thing has already been done for us, not by us.
The Christian life is not about what we do for God, but what He has done for us. When we read the Bible and interpret the stories as good examples to follow in our own lives, we fail to see that the Bible was written to testify about the faithfulness and righteousness of Jesus, not the faithfulness and righteousness of mortal men (John 5:39-40).
So what does this have to do with “the everyday” or “the ordinary?” Absolutely everything! You see, the Bible was uniquely written to testify about Jesus Christ and the unfolding Story of God to redeem a people unto Himself, a people to whom He would reveal His glory, and a people through whom He would display His glory to the World. We call this group of people, the church. And, the Scriptures make it clear that Jesus came to die for the church, and the Holy Spirit was given to empower the church. Thus, we cannot read the Scriptures as if everything that happened to individual men and women of God at one point in history is going to happen to us again, today. The story of the Bible wasn’t about faith-filled individuals doing great things for God in the first place. The story of the Bible is about Jesus, redeeming a people and renewing the world, through those people. So it shouldn’t surprise us that the mission of God today isn’t about individuals doing great things for God. It is about Jesus working in and through His people - the local church!
We may never part an ocean, call down fire from Heaven, raise someone from the dead, or start a worldwide revival. It would be cool if we did. But we most likely won’t. And I say that not with lack of faith, but with a firm understanding of the history of movements and revivals in the church. To be sure, I do pray for God to use our church to reach our city and be a part of a massive revival. But if He doesn’t, and I never get to see something like that, I’m cool with just being faithful in my role and leading the people of Sojourn to be faithful in theirs. We may not experience God displaying His glory in a few really big things. But we can experience Him displaying His glory in a thousand little things.
So, rather than always looking to be a part of the extraordinary, how about we try to do what is most commonly demonstrated to us in the New Testament: repent of our sins, put our trust in Christ, be baptized, join a local body of believers, submit to spiritual leadership, build up our brothers and sisters in Christ, give of our finances, care for the poor and needy, share our faith, and of course, make disciples.
Nothing on that list is necessarily radical or extraordinary. Yet, this is the context into which two-thirds of the New Testament was written. Outside of the Old Testament miracles, the ministry of Jesus, and the supernatural birth of the church in the book of Acts, the Bible was written to congregations of men and women who were struggling to live out their faith in the context of “everyday life.” And it was in the context of the everyday that the New Testament writers labored to ensure that believers applied their faith to the rhythms of communal life together (See: Romans, 1st & 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st & 2nd Thessalonians, 1st & 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1st & 2nd Peter, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, and Jude).
As we survey the condition of the New Testament church, it appears that the focus isn’t on doing radical things with zeal, power, and tenacity, but on doing ordinary things with grace, love, and mercy. To make a disclaimer that is likely to be overlooked, it’s true that men and women in the Bible were doing some pretty radical things to see the gospel advanced in those times, and men and women should still continue to do such things today. However, my point is this: not everyone is going to be an apostolic missionary that pioneers churches in the 10/40 window. Not everyone is going sell all they have and give it to the poor. And, not everyone is going to start a non-profit organization that will contribute to the end of global issues like human trafficking, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and genocide. To put it plainly, not everyone is going to do something extraordinary. As a matter of fact, if everyone did something extraordinary, it would become ordinary, and it would cease to be extraordinary.
So, as a pastor, I call our people to embrace the ordinary rather than overlook it. I call them to make much of Jesus in the rhythms of everyday life, not just isolated events that merit great deal of attention. I call them to serve others, even when no one is looking. I call them to do ordinary things, with extraordinary purpose, and that is to glorify God (Colossians 3:17).
We need more young Christians to see that perhaps the most radical thing they could do is get a job, join a church, settle down, raise a family, and make disciples in the context that God has placed them in rather than dreaming about being somewhere else. Given what I have seen in the young Christian culture, it appears we desire to make Jesus known in a way that also makes us known. Thus, I think it would be more radical to see our generation stay committed to a single job, city, or church for more than 9 months.
The young people in our nation have become opportunists rather than builders, consumers rather than cultivators, and tourists rather than missionaries. All primarily because we are constantly looking for the next big thing.
So, my call is simple. Embrace the Everyday. Who knows? God might use you to do something extraordinary in an ordinary way.
