On the Beauty of Ordinary People
In his 55 Maxims of the Christian Life, Fr. Thomas Hopko tells us to “be an ordinary person.” It’s not a message that’s generally preached from our major platforms. Just the opposite, in fact. We’re encouraged to engage the challenges of our culture with the extraordinary skills at our disposal if we would only read the right books, go to the right conferences, and listen to the right people. In a word, be extraordinary.
But what if you’ve been to the conferences, heard the podcasts, and read the books, and your biggest takeaway is that you’re not strong enough, smart enough, and creative enough to meet those challenges? What if you walk away overwhelmed, guilty, and discouraged, rather than challenged, excited, and motivated? You’re just an ordinary person after all.
Our vision at Thinking Out Loud is to see ordinary Christians advance the credibility of Christ. Part of the problem is that we need to recover the dignity of the word “ordinary.” I define an ordinary person as someone who can’t afford to overlook the significance of regular life. While it’s true that many folks simply don’t have the luxury of “dreaming big” and purchasing space from the daily necessities of their circumstances, this definition is not tied exclusively to socio-economic factors. Instead, I have in mind the spiritual recognition that the Lord’s hidden hand is in every situation of our lives, from the most seemingly important (marriage, birth, career advancement) all the way to the most seemingly trivial–a busted hot water heater on an already stressful day.
I used to work for a massive Christian ministry. I had access to sophisticated technology, numerous creative minds, and, most important of all, an office with a door. Now I work from home and things are very different. For one, my office no longer has a door; it’s a spare room above the garage from which I can hear even the most minute noise on the other end of the house. My writing is frequently interrupted by the sound of little footsteps and it’s possible you’ve heard some high-pitched voices in the background of a podcast or two.
I used to use the phrase “marooned in the wilderness of my home.” I’ve come to see how very wrongheaded this was. One evening, I was sitting in the living room with a book in my hands when the sound of my wife and children singing a bedtime praise song drifted down the stairs. Her beautiful voice backed by their little faltering notes, the plainsong of our nighttime routine. It may have been ordinary, but it was exquisitely beautiful and it was God’s grace to me in my cluttered living room on that balmy evening.
Be an ordinary person because in truth, none of us can afford to overlook the significance of the regular circumstances into which God in his mercy has placed us. We can waste our time trying to escape, or we can trust our Lord and choose to be fully present.
