Want To Be Spiritual?

"Spirituality is no different from what we’ve been doing for two thousand years just by going to church and receiving the sacraments, being baptized, learning to pray, and reading Scriptures rightly. It’s just ordinary stuff.

I’ve been a pastor most of my life, for some 45 years. I love doing this. But to tell you the truth, the people who give me the most distress are those who come asking, “Pastor, how can I be spiritual?” Forget about being spiritual. How about loving your husband? Now that’s a good place to start. But that’s not what they’re interested in. How about learning to love your kids, accept them the way they are?"

   - Eugene Peterson, quoted in “Spirituality for all the Wrong Reasons,” by Nark Galli

HT: cccdiscover

The League of Non-Extraordinary Gentlemen (and Ladies)

Are you part of the League? Check out The League of the Faithful by R. G. Grune

God's assembling a league of not-so-extraordinary gentlemen. He's gathering ordinary individuals with marginal influence, mediocre careers, and minimal pay. These men and women aren't the ones that are told of in legends. These aren't the men that kids dream about becoming - kids don't go to bed dreaming about working on the assembly line or doing taxes. These women aren't the women that young women picture when they declare a major.

The gentlemen and women who make up this league often find themselves tired, sore, and doubting. They are frustrated and exhausted, always on the verge of giving up but too committed to ever actually give up. 

Why do they even do what they do? Because they are faithful. 

Every morning at 5:00am the alarm goes off. These faithful men and women get to work before the rest of the world even brushes their teeth. It's not for the paycheck. It's definitely not for the flexible hours. They don't get to work from home. 

They come home from a long day at work to a family who needs their faithfulness even more than their boss demands their commitment. These faithful men who sat on boards and made million-dollar business decisions now get on their knees and play with Barbies and fight invisible bad guys while making laser noises.  

They are faithful. 

The league of the faithful are the ordinary men and women that God has called to do their work faithfully. God has called them, and they do it. They are the moms and the dads, the husbands and the wives, the neighbors and the coworkers that do their ordinary work every day. They don't seek the allure of bigger and better, but they seek faithfulness where they are. 

They do their job well. 

They love their family well. 

They serve the people well. 

In 1 Peter 4:10, Peter writes, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." The league of the faithful use their gifts and their calling to serve the people around them. Regardless of how much they like the work or the difficulty of the work - they are faithful with what God has given them. They are faithful in the way that Jesus teaches in Luke 16:10, "One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much."

In ordinary, everyday work, God does something incredible. God is hidden and at work serving companies and clients, kids and spouses, neighbors and coworkers. God is hidden behind a league of faithful men and women who serve where God has called them.

God has chosen to do his impossible, extraordinary work of caring for creation with faithful men and women. God has chosen to use faithful men and women in their homes, office, and classrooms to do the work of God faithfully simply by loving people in work they have to do. 

Sacred Living

Taken from an Ann Voskamp post on marriage, but applicable to all of life

When you realize something is “sacred,” far from making it boring — it gives birth to a new awe, a new reverence, a take-your-breath away realization that something you’ve perhaps taken for granted is far more profound, far more powerful, far more life-giving and life-transforming than perhaps you’ve ever realized.

Small Acts With Great Significance

Have you ever wished for great wealth, great talents, and large opportunities to help others and serve the Lord? Maybe in doing so, we miss the small gifts, talents and opportunities that have great significance. Read this excerpt from An Extraordinary Skill for Ordinary Christians by Tim Challies:

...But I love what John Piper says: “Here is a vocation that will bring you more satisfaction than if you became a millionaire ten times over: Develop the extraordinary skill for detecting the burdens of others and devote yourself daily to making them lighter.” This is the extraordinary ministry for every ordinary Christian—bearing the burdens of others. What seems so mundane and so unspectacular, is actually bringing great glory and honor to God.

You know the passage in Matthew 25 that describes the sheep being separated from the goats at the final judgment (verses 31-46). You have read it a hundred times, but have you ever paused to considered the criteria? The believers are not separated from the unbelievers on the basis of extravagant and spectacular deeds that were seen and fêted by others. Far from it. At the final accounting, when we stand before the Lord, we will be shocked to realize that the most significant things are the smallest things—things so small we have forgotten all about them: “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” But these small things stand as proof of our salvation, proof of our commitment to the good of others and the glory of God.

This is the ministry of burden-bearing. It is a vocation that will earn you very few accolades. It will gain you very few awards. The majority of what you do will be unnoticed by others and forgotten even by those who benefit most. You yourself will forget most of it. But every bit of it will matter. Every bit of it will do good to others and bring glory to God.

So look for those who are burdened. Develop the habit and the skill of spotting those burdens, and determine that you will meet them, one casserole or one hug or one visit or one prayer at a time.

Boring

Here's a provocative title - Being Radical For Jesus Is Boring. There's a good article to go with it at the link.

Hint: Being boring is a good thing.