from Lenae, GEMS Training Manager

Epic 

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

ep·ic

• heroic; majestic; impressively great: the epic events of the war.
• of unusually great size or extent: a crime wave of epic proportions.
• Slang. spectacular; very impressive (from dictionary.com)

Our culture is into epic. That word is used all over the place these days. It describes everything from Ferraris to French Fries to Friday night. It’s the promise of marketers, and the goal of planners. Don’t settle for ordinary. Live epic!

In this season of glitter and glamor, in this chasing after all that is big and best, John 3:30 living can seem ordinary, even boring and blasé.

In his book, Boring: Finding an Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life, Michael Kelley urges readers to be faithful to God’s call. Even if “everyone else is worshipping at the idols of more and excitement” you stay faithful to what God is calling you to do in this season of life.

Does your call involve diapers? Change them for the glory of God. Does it include caring for an elderly parent? Be kind, patient, and thoughtful. Care for her as if serving the Lord. Maybe it’s washing dishes, carpooling, filling out mounds of paperwork, or being the first and last person at GEMS Club each week. Do it quietly. Work hard. Be faithful. Let your daily life, even the tiniest task and most laborious chore, point to our extraordinary God.

Whatever you do–whether you eat or drink, whether you’re backstage or center stage, whether the task is wallpapered in boring or abuzz with epic–do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Kelley writes, “’Ordinary’ is a myth. The only reason we think of something as ordinary is because we fail to look for and then grasp the massive depth of the work and presence of God in our lives.”

Peter and John got that. When the people realized they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13). When people met Peter and John, they didn’t see ordinary. They saw Jesus. They saw the work and presence of Jesus!

HE>i: Intentionally look for God’s extraordinary work and presence in your most ordinary tasks today.

If Jesus became incarnate to live among the ordinary, then what we call ordinary is really special to God.

Tim Keller