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Ordinary Time

Ordinary time. After the fiery spirit-filled season of Pentecost, Christians slip quietly into ordinary time, the space on the church calendar between Pentecost and Advent. We’ve celebrated all the big events in the life of Christ and the birth of the church. The Spirit has come and is blowing among us, and now we live. We live in everyday-ordinary life and the Holy Spirit empowers our living. We now enter into a season of finding our place in God’s story. In the prayer book, Seeking God’s Face, the author describes ordinary time as the chance to “take in the gospel, allowing it to take shape in our daily living, making connections between Jesus’ story and our lives” (431).

It can be easy to unplug in the summer months. In many ways, this unplugging is good – if it means going camping and leaving your laptop at home, or going for long walks without your phone, or taking a vacation from work and routine. But we never unplug from the Gospel, the good news of Jesus. So as we head into the summer months and also the season of Ordinary time, I’ve challenged our youth, and I challenge you, to read the four Gospels – the story of Jesus – and ponder the question ‘How can God use my ordinary life?’ Ordinary isn’t boring, it’s just every-day.

“The Christian life is not an otherworldly faith; it’s about this creation, your life, these days.”

God took an ordinary girl named Mary and gave her the opportunity to be the mother of Jesus. She took her everyday life and chose to live it for the glory of God. God took an ordinary fisherman named Peter and gave him the opportunity to walk on water. He took his everyday life and chose to live following the footsteps of Jesus. In the Gospel, ordinary people live real lives in real situations and God uses them. We, too, can ask ourselves:

How does the life of Jesus make a difference in my life?

How am I invited to live knowing and believing what Jesus has done for me?

How can I unplug from the things I need distance from, while at the same time plug into what I need more of?

Here is a prayer we can all pray together during this season:

Breathe on us, breath of God; infuse our everyday lives with a majesty and glory that only comes from your Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Fill our lives with a boldness that isn’t bluster but simply the overflow of your eternal life in us. Amen.

Prayer taken from Seeking God’s Face Ordinary Time Day 3 and inspired by Belgic Confession 11.