The Ministry of the Ordinary

Maybe it’s a result of being in one of the social media “look how amazing my life is” generations, but I have this subtle soundtrack that plays in the back of my mind sometimes:

“Important things are big and public things. Since I’m not doing something impressive that everybody knows about, I’m not doing anything important.”

If I don’t have a social media platform, am I even anybody?

If I don’t lead an official church program, do I even love Jesus?

If I don’t have an impressive job or I’m not chasing my career dreams, is what I’m doing even valuable?

When that recording plays in my subconscious, chronic illness and its limitations has often left me feeling purposeless and depressed. If I can’t even handle the basics every day, how can I ever hope to do anything that matters? With this subconscious belief, the hampster wheel of life just keeps spinning, day after boring unfulfilling day.

A little while ago, I went to spend the day with my brother who is experiencing some major health issues. Shortly after I got there, he had a massive panic attack. Hyperventilating, fighting for air, sobbing, snot, tingling limbs- the works. For two awful hours. As I sat on the floor with him rubbing his back and crying my own tears when he wasn’t looking, the impression came to me as if it was audible:

This is valuable. This matters.

Later, I realized: not only was that moment valuable, but so were the many times before this one when I had suffered through my own panic attacks. Those moments were preparing me for this one, so I could know what it was and what to do, and could literally comfort someone else with the comfort (in this case, ice packs and Valor essential oil) I had received.

[Now, don’t get me wrong, I still have lots of questions about why panic attacks are even a thing in the first place- but that’s a whole other issue.]

Panic attack coach seems a far cry from detective or fighter pilot. But in Jesus’ upside down kingdom, the little things are the big things. The unglamorous jobs are the worthwhile ones. And the hard is used for good.

I hate it, I love it, and I don’t really understand it. I hate the upside down-ness because it seems too simplistic. I love it for the same reason: if the small and unseen is valuable, it’s simple to consistently and successfully do things that matter in our ordinary days. And I don’t understand it because it seems so… backwards.

Maybe you don’t have a chronic illness, but you probably have something in your life that feels like a limitation or a hindrance to your elusive “bigger purpose”- a boring job, endless meals, repetitive diaper changes, caring for an aging parent or sick family member, or [add yours here]. Maybe it feels like “it” is holding you back from your “real” purpose and “valuable” work.

But Jesus says otherwise.

He says offering our bodies as a living sacrifice makes us holy and pleasing to God. He says when we take care of the sick or feed the hungry or visit the prisoner, we do that for Him. What we do for the vulnerable, we do for Jesus. That means, whatever “it” is, “it” matters because we do “it” for Jesus.

And this perspective shift literally changes everything. Instead of trying to figure out some big mystery life purpose or feeling held back from said mystery purpose by uncontrollable circumstances, we can start to see purpose and meaning in whatever is set before us, no matter how far it is from what we want to be doing do or how insignificant it might feel.

How would your day change if you asked God to give you Jesus’ eyes for your work, so that you could see the value and the mattering of whatever ordinary lies ahead?

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers
and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
-Jesus