Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Serving Christ in the Ordinary

Imagine that Christ came to you one day and said, "I need you and you are the only person in the whole world who can do this. Will you help me?" Who could refuse? Who wouldn't want to be an agent sent by Christ himself? But then imagine that Christ said, "I need you to be a friend to the old woman who lives next door to you." What would you do? There is a certain glamour in having a life purpose, imagining that everything one does in life is oriented toward some great ideal. But it's very different if one's life purpose is to carry out a very mundane task. It is much easier to imagine following Christ as a knight sent on brave errands than as an ordinary person befriending a widow. For most of us, Christ's call will look much more like the second option. It will not be glamorous or exciting; in fact, much of the time it might be pretty ordinary. But if we are following Christ, then even the ordinary becomes part of the fabric of a holy life.

There is no escape from the ordinary. No matter who we are, no matter what we do, there are going to be parts of our lives that are repetitious and boring. What makes these periods tolerable is the knowledge that they contribute to something greater. ...

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