the ordinary

"Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things, as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value." ~Teihard de Chardin


This is an important word, for we tend to live in a kind of inner apartheid. We segregate out a small corner of pious activities and then we can make no spiritual sense out of the rest of our lives. The scandal of Christianity in our day is the heresy of a five percent spirituality. The untheatrical regularity of the ordinary reminds us that here is where we will find God...and build a history with God...in the common, ordinary, daily, mundane, routine, uneventful tasks of life. ~Richard Foster

five percent

"It was Teihard de Chardin who said, 'Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things...as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value.' We segregate out a small corner of pious activities and then we can make no spiritual sense out of the rest of our lives. The scandal of Christianity in our day is the heresy of a five percent spirituality...

One of the reasons that ordinary tasks are so vitally important to a spiritual life is simply because most of us spend most of our time here. Frankly, if we fail to sanctify the ordinary, we will be leaving God out of a large part of who we are and what we do."

~from Devotional Classics by Richard Foster

"Pray without ceasing." ~1 Thessalonians 5:17 [KJV]

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him." ~Colossians 3:17 [NIV]

"Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship." ~Romans 12:1 [NIV]