Happy Monday!
I wonder if most weeks begin with the sense of today’s word-of-the-week…
Ordinary
“How can you possibly put all the stories from RICH’S RIDE in one book?”
It’s a encouraging question from someone who found the project interesting and perhaps even inspiring. When I’m stuck in the middle of a manuscript it helps to remember that others care about the events I try to explain.
But the truth is that most of the ride was just like the rest of life: ordinary. Life isn’t an endless series of dramatic, life-changing, top-of-the-mountain moments. We’re tempted to edit the script and eliminate the regular, day-to-day stuff. Ordinary doesn’t attract much attention.
Most of RICH’S RIDE wouldn’t make for compelling TV. As I write I notice the pull toward the theatrical, the spectacular, the outwardly remarkable. We experienced plenty of those moments. It would be easy to fill a book with them.
But the ride wasn’t aimed at “easy.” The point was never headlines or 140-character sound bites. And writing about it shouldn’t be like that, either. The challenge isn’t in relating, reliving, or recreating the highlights but in capturing the magic of the ordinary.
Today, like most Mondays and most of life, is probably ordinary. The true art of living is capturing and relishing the mystery and magic that surrounds us when days seem ordinary.
God’s doing a new thing (Isaiah 43) on this ordinary Monday. Jesus walks with me and you on this ordinary Monday.
We can open our eyes and perceive the remarkable that’s just beneath the surface of ordinary.
Have a great week.