The ‘ordinary’ is just as important

How do you respond to the word “ordinary?” Does the idea of “ordinary” excite you? Probably not!

Just in case anyone is interested, this unexciting word “ordinary” comes from the Latin, ordinaris, suggesting something regular, something according to order. The adjective “ordinary” means customary, usual, normal, even unexceptional. Are we excited about “ordinary” yet? Well, we might be … especially after more than a year of life being out of the ordinary.

I think many of you know that the church is now in what is called Ordinary Time. The festival days of Easter and Pentecost are over. The church will remain in ordinary time until the beginning of Advent. For now, ordinary time is where we dwell.

I want to say that’s a good thing. Enough of the extraordinary time we’ve just lived through. Let’s get back to normal! Let’s get back to ordinary days, ordinary time, to our ordinary routines, our ordinary life.

Day-to-day living includes embracing routines, and while this dailiness of life might seem so mundane and non-spectacular, I want to suggest that the dailiness of life can bring us much joy, comfort, and peace.

The Benedictine nun Joan Chittister invites us to dwell in the words of Psalm 104 and hear in it why it is a good thing to notice and appreciate the good things of life … the ordinary things that make our lives full of meaning, the basic things that keep us going.

Psalm 104 reminds us of God’s daily activity, God’s daily routines, the ordinariness of God who created the world, “the grass for animals to eat, the plants that bring forth food and wine to gladden the heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen us.”

Celebrating the ordinary, recognizing the importance of the dailiness of life is important. The fine art of getting up every morning to do what needs to be done, to face the day and keep on going might be one of the most difficult things we do in life. It takes courage, this getting up each day and living life. And some days are just plain hard.

We might wonder where God is during these ordinary days of our lives … for we surely know God is with us in our joys, in our accomplishments, in our struggles, in our sorrow. But the reality is that God is at work in “ordinary time” whether we see what God is doing or not. God is at work, in the most normal of times.

When things are ordinary, as they are a good bit of the time, we might just pay attention to the ways that God is calling out to us … “look at this,” God says when we see the bright colors of pansies in the garden. “Listen to this,” we hear God say when the birdsong comes close by. “Feel this,” when we experience a hug from a loved one.

Today we are encouraged to keep on, to live into these ordinary days with courage because there is much to be learned from what happens day in and day out. Acknowledging the ordinariness of our lives … the joy of community, the delight of summer colors, the laughter of friends … makes ordinary days more than bearable but enriching and filled with the promise of a new thing. It is my hope that we will find delight in living into the dailiness of life and celebrating each day for its routine pleasures.