“The Importance of the Ordinary” by Pastor Nate

You’ve just won… a new car!

I love that part of the Price is Right game show.  It’s always so exciting when the doors open to reveal some fabulous, expensive automobile and the winning contest jumps up and down hysterically excited about their good fortune.

We love new things, don’t we?  Even if it’s not fabulous prizes on game shows, we love hearing about the newest smartphones; the newest gadgets that are *guaranteed* to make our life easier; the new Netflix show that we’re *definitely* going to love.

There is such a focus in our world on the new and exciting.

But I’m not so sure living in this cycle of the new and exciting is good for us. It can cause us to always feel dissatisfied with the present moment; to always be chasing after the Next Big Thing believing that’s where we will finally find fulfillment.

What if we learned to simply be present and grateful for this moment, ordinary as it may be?  One of the consistent messages found in the Bible is that God is with us.  And so if we really believe that God is present with us, that means that our current moment has all that we could ever need.  We don’t need anything more than what we have right now because in this present moment God is with us.

I love the way that Eugene Peterson adapted the language of 1 Corinthians 7:17 in The Message:

“And don’t be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God’s place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there.”

May we learn to see this present moment as a sacred space infused with the presence of God.  Amen