What if much of what we consider ordinary is actually holy?
And visa versa, of course, but this post is less about tipping sacred cows and more about finding God in the mundane, daily life tasks we perform as mothers, wives, daughters, aunts, employees, employers, sisters, and grandmothers.
While walking outside with my kids yesterday, I felt a question stirring inside me: When we find God in the #ordinary, does it sanctify it? I immediately think of Brother Lawrence's deep thoughts on "doing work as unto God" and Mother Teresa's encouragement to look for God's face in the faces of the people around us. Both of them found great #contentment and power in doing ordinary life tasks daily.
Many teachers in my life have used that term "as unto God" but I could never really grasp it and apply it to, say, making my bed every morning, or cooking, or cleaning. It wasn't until I was wiping faces and—quite frankly, bums—before I began to see what they were meaning to say. Still though, it doesn't seem at all reasonable that the God-Who-Holds-The-Universe-Together cares much about me making my bed. (And if He does, doesn't that seem kind of creepy or weird or OCD?)
But what if wiping faces lovingly, doing the dishes yet again after a meal picky eaters likely won't eat, cleaning one more spill without losing my mind, nursing through a growth spurt every half hour, changing enough diapers to keep Pampers in business for a year—what if this was actually holy? How would that transform the task itself? How would that thought transform me?
What makes something holy? My quick answer is "when God says so" but the longer answer is this: 1) When God is in it; 2) When God is present; and 3) if it brings glory to God. We know something is holy when it brings glory to God or God's glory (meaning God's glorious presence) to us.
I've said before that the opposite of #holy is ordinary, not sin. (The opposite of sin is righteousness.) Not even profane. (The opposite of profane is reverence.) Nadab and Abihu were destroyed because they treated what was holy as ordinary and profaned what they should have reverenced. The object itself was holy (God said so Himself), and they failed to see it or treat it that way. They profaned it instead of reverencing it. #Reverence guards your heart and actions, but it doesn't change when something is holy or not.
Just because something is done daily doesn't mean it's ordinary.
You've probably heard the saying "familiarity breeds contempt." I think it's more accurate to say that familiarity breeds apathy and indifference, so that we no longer reverence what is holy. We are too familiar, so we lose our perspective.
What if an act done in #love for another—however small—is holy? "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person shall not lose their reward." (Matthew 10:27) What if an act done in obedience to Christ sanctifies it?
What if doing #housework, serving our closest "ministries", picking up kids and dropping them off, making a home, and even wiping faces or bums is actually holy? If we allow these ordinary tasks to do so, they will bring God's glory—His presence—in us and to us, to transform us. They should be honored and reverenced. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Grace finds God in the so-called mundane.
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