Go counter-cultural -- ordinary

By Cameron Crabtree

          It’s getting harder to live as an ordinary Christian. Almost everywhere Christians turn these days, they are lured toward experiencing an extraordinary walk with God – which tends to mirror North American definitions of success and triumph.
          Should they live their best life now or join the divine conspiracy? Focus on the family or spread a contagious Christianity? Better to spend 40 days on purpose or just wild at heart? Should the essence of devotion be radical, purpose-driven or missional?
          If you’re familiar with such allusions, you’ve already spent adequate time in a “Christian” bookstore, listened to enough “positive alternative” radio or perused the plethora of mail-order catalogs offering discounted pathways to spiritual growth.
          The industries comprising evangelical subculture seek to help, they can confuse fellow believers. It’s easy to understand why some people increasingly choose to free themselves of those entanglements and just go with “me and Jesus.”
          Pastors and church staff don’t have it much easier as they face an almost constant barrage of subtle judgment about perceived inadequacies in ministry and their need to do more for God.
          Among the popular burden of our day is the notion of setting expectations or goals so high that if they’re met, God’s handiwork is the only explanation. Perhaps that’s the modern-day version of William Carey’s famous adage: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
          Such well-intended ideas sound good in a sermon or book chapter, but people rarely live near the edges of triumph so much as in the trenches of daily burdens and responsibilities. One of the favors we can do for those we serve is to help them interpret the ways God works in and through them in their ordinary activities.
          The weekly Bible study group in which I participate again has been walking though Sermon on the Mount. While the material in the discourse is familiar to almost everyone, what jumps out in our dialogue is just how much Jesus encourages his followers to live counter-culturally in the ongoing routines and relationships of life.
          Certainly, we want to continue to commission those who give their workaday vocation to serving the kingdom of God in lives in so-called extra measure, but we also want to celebrate those who simply obey the commands of Christ in daily living behind the scenes and out of the public’s view.
          John Ortberg suggested it best in a recent essay: “Our attention can be arrested by deeply dramatic moments. But our character cannot be reformed by dramatic events alone. That demand’s a longer, slower, less glamorous process. Our attention, like our habits, will have to be retrained. Spiritual maturity is not the capacity to see God in the extraordinary. Pharaoh could do that. Spiritual maturity is the capacity to see God in the ordinary. And if you receive that capacity, if you become someone with eyes that can see and ears that can hear, you are given a gift.”