Not so ordinary at all

It is the most ordinary of Mondays, catching up from the weekend, launching into the new week, trying to get a handle on new projects and tying up ones with loose ends.

By my calculations, it is not a big day.

But in God's eyes, every day is significant.

I can look at my schedule but never really determine what is on my plate today.  While there are appointments to be kept, assignments to complete, all manner of stuff that needs to be finished, there is always something more going on, far beneath the surface, deeper still.

It is the ordinary days when extraordinary things arrive on my doorstep, unannounced and unexpected.  And the most extraordinary of all may not even appear that way at first glance:  a fresh and crazy idea, a divine encounter in the check-out line, a sudden kindness, or faithfulness in everyday tasks.  On the most ordinary days, God's grace seeps in our hearts a little deeper.  On ordinary days, the training takes root.  On ordinary days, quite suddenly, God changes my vision just a little more in not so little ways.

What you do matters greatly to God, even if no one else ever notices.

There is always so much more going on behind the scenes, things that God is doing that I cannot possibly comprehend.  I will never underestimate, nor underappreciate, events that I attend, now that we have celebrated two weddings in our family.  I know the hard work, the difficult decisions, the glaring glitches, that long and rocky road that goes with it, always more than I ever imagined.

Today is one of those "behind the scenes" days of living out the hope within me, seizing opportunities for grace that present themselves as interruptions, just being faithful because I can never know how God will bear fruit through the common things that are not so common at all.

God multiplies a million different ways
                  a simple kindness
                         an act of forgiveness
                 an intentional deed of goodness to another
     His Glory all over it
                          in monumental ways.
We have only to be faithful
      in what He has set before us.
 It is God who fills those everydays
                                  with great significance,
                even in that we don't even recognize.
Every day is precious in His sight.
How do I know?
      The Bible is full of extraordinary things
                     on the most ordinary days.

It is not that we fit Him into our plans,
         but that we follow God into
                     His day for us.

Even today.

For God is not so unjust
     as to overlook your work
     and the love you showed
                  for His sake
in serving the saints as you still do.

                          Hebrews 6.10

So also good deeds are conspicuous,
and even when they are not,
             they cannot remain hidden.

                            1 Timothy 5.25