Dr. Ron Sumners
February 26, 2006
Many of us live a kind of inner segregation. We segregate out a small corner of pious activities and then can make no spiritual sense out of the rest of our lives. We have become so accustomed to this way of living that we fail to see the contradiction in it. The scandal of Christianity in our day is the heresy of a spirituality that only exists a couple of hours a week - or less than 2% of our time.
We can overcome this heresy by Praying the Ordinary. We pray the ordinary in three ways: first, by turning ordinary experiences of life into prayer; second, by seeing God in the ordinary experiences of life; and third, by praying throughout the ordinary experiences of life.
My grandfather Sumners was an extraordinary man. So much of him was about the uneventful and the ordinary. He lived an ordinary life and died an ordinary death when I was twenty years old.
He did both well. He loved my grandmother and his family well. He lived through the drab terrain of ordinary life with grace, generosity, and gentleness. He accepted the brain tumor that slowly robbed him of his physical mobility with a noble faith. He received death at age 76 with patience and courage. My grandfather understood the sanctity of the ordinary. He was extraordinary because he understood the fact that all of life is a sacrament to God. His home, his family, his little country store, his own body was the temple where he worshipped God. He died at perfect peace with God and man.
The Bible asserts that "God created the heavens and the earth... and indeed, it was very good" (Gen. 1 :1-31). Then, in the fullness of God's timing, God reinforced and intensified this reality by choosing birth in a stable as his ultimate revelation. How the shepherds must have wondered at the twofold sign by which they were to identify the Messiah - swaddling clothes and a manger. How unimpressive for a King! How ordinary and commonplace!
But think of this: in the creation and the incarnation the great God of the universe intertwined the spiritual and the material, wedded the sacred and the secular, sanctified the common and the ordinary. How astonishing and wonderful!
The discovery of God lies in the daily and the ordinary, not in the spectacular and the heroic. If we cannot find God in the routines of home, school, and work, then we will not find him at all. Ours is to be a faith in which all the activities of work and play and family and worship and sleep are the holy habits of life lived "in Christ." Thomas Merton urges us to have an "unspeakable reverence for the holiness of created things."
Jesus spent most of his earthly life in a blue-collar job. He did not wait until his baptism in the Jordan River to discover God. Jesus validated the reality of God in the carpentry shop over and over before speaking of the reality of God in his ministry as a rabbi.
Many see their vocation as a hindrance to prayer. "If only I had some time free from the distraction of work, then I could pray," is a common sentiment. But prayer is not another duty to add to an already overcommitted schedule. In praying the ordinary, our vocation, far from being a hindrance, is an asset.
How is this so? Is it that we learn the secret of praying at work? Certainly, that is important, but it is not why our work is such an asset to prayer. Our vocation is an asset to prayer because our work "becomes" prayer. It is prayer in action. The artist, the novelist, the physician, the schoolteacher, the plumber, the lawyer, the secretary, the homemaker, the farmer - all are praying by offering their work up to God.
"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God," is Paul's philosophy in 1 Corinthians 10:31. Anthony Bloom writes, "A prayer makes sense only if it is lived." Unless they are lived, unless life and prayer become completely interwoven, prayers become sort of light, fluffy verbiage, and nothing more. The work of our hands and of our minds is acted out prayer, a love offering to the living God.
In the movie, Chariots of Fire, Olympic runner, Eric Liddell, tells his sister, "Jenny, when I run, I feel His pleasure." This is the reality that is to permeate all vocations, whether we are wiring a light fixture, teaching the parts of speech to a grammar school student, or cleaning a toilet!
It is at the toilet cleaning that many have a problem. It is not hard to see how Michelangelo or John Milton could give glory to God - theirs were creative vocations.
But how can there be prayer in the boring, mundane, and seemingly unimportant jobs?
Here we must understand the order in the Kingdom of God. It is precisely in these mundane jobs that we find God the most. We do not need to have good feelings or a warm glow in order to do work for the glory of God. All good work is pleasing to the Father. Even the jobs that seem meaningless and mindless to us are highly valued in the Kingdom of God.
God values the ordinary. If, for the glory of God, you are putting an endless supply of nuts on an endless supply of bolts, your work can still be a sweet-smelling offering to the throne of God. If he dwells in your heart, he participates with you and the work itself becomes a prayer.
Can a person live a full, satisfying life that glorifies God without work? I do not know how. Certainly, all things are possible with God, and some people are physically challenged from some types of physical work, but I believe that working for the kingdom is very important. If our ability or opportunities allows for nothing more than sending encouraging notes, we are to do so with all our might to the glory of God and for the good of our neighbor. I value labor as a reflection of the image of God so much that my personal conviction is that part of the bliss of heaven will be joyous, creative, productive work. I believe that it will be a part of our praise to the Lord.
We are also praying the Ordinary when we engage in the "Prayer of Action." Every action is performed in the sight of God because it is the will of God, and in the manner that God wills, is a prayer, and a better prayer than could be made in words.
Each activity of daily life in which we stretch ourselves on behalf of others is a prayer of action - the times when we scrimp and save in order to get something special for the children; the times when we share our car with others on rainy mornings, leaving early to get them to work on time; the times when we keep up correspondence with friends or answer one last telephone call when we are dead tired and would rather go home for the night. These times and many more are lived prayer. Ignatius of Loyola said, "Everything that one turns in the direction of God is prayer."
We are praying the Ordinary when we see God in the ordinary experiences of life. Can we find meaning in the crayon marks on the wall that our two-year-old made? Could we see them as the finger of God writing on the wall of our hearts? What if there was no little finger to scribble on that wall?
Waiting is a part of ordinary life. We can discover God in our waiting: waiting in checkout lines, waiting for the telephone to ring, waiting for graduation, waiting for a promotion, waiting to retire, waiting to die. The waiting itself becomes a prayer as we give our waiting to God. In waiting we begin to get in touch with the rhythms of life - stillness and action, listening and decision. These are the rhythms of God. It is in the everyday and commonplace that we learn patience, acceptance, and contentment.
We live in a day where "winning through intimidation" is the order of the day. I am attracted to people who are free from the tyranny of assertiveness! I am drawn to people who can simply meet people where they are, with no need to control or manage or make them do anything. I enjoy being around them because they draw the best out of me without any manipulation at all. My high school football coach never learned that about me. He thought he could motivate me by screaming at me. It didn't work then or now.
Come to me calmly, rationally without seeking to manipulate me through lying or interpreting the truth to your benefit and you will have my undivided attention and cooperation. I suspect that many of you are just like me in that regard.
Another way of praying the Ordinary is by praying throughout the ordinary experiences of life. When you read the newspaper, why not breathe a prayer for our world leaders and the decisions that they face? You might see a friend at the mall or in the hall at school and voice a prayer for them and the circumstances of their life. Jogging through the neighborhood, could you pray for each home that you pass on the way? As you mow the lawn or plant the garden, could you thank God for sun, rain, and good things? This is the stuff of ordinary prayer through ordinary experience.
Prayers concerning the family are perhaps the most common expression of praying the Ordinary. The best altar is the open hearth of the fireplace in the center of the home. The family table can be a communion table where meals are celebrated as the bounty from the Lord and Dad and Mom can fulfill their priestly rolls to teach their children the truth of God.
One ancient custom that can be traced back to the early days of the Christian Church was for children to ask the father for a blessing every evening before bedtime. We may find this a little old fashioned, but what a wonderful joy for parents or grandparents. Have the child sit in your lap and share with them a well-thought-out blessing just for them. Put a tune to it and sing it to them as they fall asleep.
The teen years demand adjustments. As parents, we become mostly an embarrassment to our teens. They do not want us in their room, even though we pay all the bills and furnish the room. Amazingly, they feel that it is their property. They do not want us to touch them, and they are way too sophisticated for family prayers. You can pray for them in your heart. Also, you will find that the content of what you pray will change.
More and more, you will be praying prayers of release, for they are trying to cut the emotional umbilical cord, and this is as it should be. Don't clasp too tightly or you may lose them.
Often these are times of tension. Teenagers are trying to define themselves. They may seem to reject your beliefs in order to reclaim them as their own. If you do have teenagers, I want to offer you a word of encouragement. I know that these years are often turbulent - a little like a rubber raft going through a series of rapids! And I know what it feels like to see your child headed for what you know is disaster but being unable to stop the inevitable. I understand. Pray for your children as they go through the rapids. That is praying the Ordinary! Remember that we were the object of the prayers of our parents when we were their age!
All of us share in what Elton Trueblood calls "the common ventures of life - birth, marriage, work, death." Jesus, in his life and in his teachings, gave sacramental significance to the ordinary experiences of daily life. I n his own birth the common and the sacred have been forever united. He rejoiced in the wedding of a couple in Galilee and added wine to the festivities. He rubbed shoulders with the fishermen and tax collectors and the other work-a-day people. And he faced death without flinching so that we can face our own death with hope.
Because of this rock-solid foundation, we know that all work is holy work, and all places are sacred places. Therefore, we lift our voices in joyful song, declaring, "This is holy ground. We are standing on holy ground; for the Lord is present. And where He is; is holy! These are holy hands; he has given us holy hands. He works through these hands, and so these hands are holy! We are standing in his presence on Holy Ground!"
Almighty, most holy, most high God, thank you for paying attention to small things. Thank you for valuing the insignificant, even me. Thank you for being interested in the lilies of the fields and the birds of the air. Thank you for caring for me. - Amen
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