Ordinary or Extraordinary? (by Cathe Laurie)

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23 NIV).

There’s a temptation to believe that life is only meaningful in the mountaintop moments.

The wedding day. The answered prayer. The promotion. The miracle. The grand adventure.

But most of life is lived making coffee. Folding towels. Driving familiar roads. Answering texts. Reheating leftovers. Watering plants. Adding one errand to another and hearing someone say, “Since you’re already up, would you mind . . . ”

It’s repetitive. It’s mundane. It’s “boring.”

And somewhere along the way, we begin to think these ordinary moments don’t count—that the mountaintop is where God makes Himself known.

But Scripture tells a very different story.

Ordinary Moments in the Bible

Moses encountered God when he was tending sheep in the wilderness. Ruth found God’s provision gleaning leftover grain in dusty fields. David wrote songs while watching sheep under ordinary stars. The disciples met Jesus while mending nets, preparing meals, and walking along roads.

Even Jesus spent most of His earthly life in obscurity: thirty years of quiet carpentry and three years of ministry.

Apparently, Heaven is not nearly as impatient with ordinary life as we are.

The Sacred Side to Everyday Work

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23 NIV). Not some things, but whatever you do.

The dishes. The emails. The school pickups. The prayers whispered while unloading groceries.

The sacred is not only found in the spectacular; sometimes it rises quietly from the well of everyday faithfulness.

Another load of laundry. Another dinner to cook. Another phone call to make.

In those ordinary moments, grace surprises us.

Times You Will Find God Amid the Ordinary 

Sunlight spills across the kitchen floor. A spouse reaches for your hand. You hear your children laughing in the other room. You sense God near in the middle of absolutely nothing extraordinary.

When we see it, the ordinary becomes luminous. The ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Jesus said in Luke, “The Kingdom of God is already among you” (Luke 17:21 NLT).

His kingdom is not distant or unreachable. He is right here, able to meet us in the small things. The repeated things. The daily things. The mountaintop experiences are great, but most of our lives are spent in the in-between, in the ascents and descents. Perhaps the blessed life is not a life without monotony, but one where we begin to notice God drawing living water from our daily, ordinary wells.

Encouragement for This Week

This week, pay attention. As you follow your daily routine, ask God to open your eyes to see Him with you, to meet Him in each seemingly mundane moment. May those daily moments well up and splash over you with a crisp, refreshing reminder that God is already among you.

Let Him take your ordinary moments and remind you that they’re extraordinary. Let His presence wash over you as you clean the dishes, pick up toys, and drive back and forth on your daily commute. Your purpose is found not only on the mountaintop, but in your everyday routine. Every moment is extraordinary!

Get these articles in your inbox!

—

Cathe Laurie is the founder and director of the Virtue women’s ministry. She is also a featured speaker on The Virtue Podcast, at Harvest events, and the author of As I See It. You can find her weekly articles here on harvest.org.