Finding God in Ordinary Time

We are doing something a little different this June at Vintage. Over the past several years, we have participated in a couple of aspects of the church calendar - Advent and Lent. These always end up being wonderful seasons of connecting with God during the buildup to the celebrations of Christmas and Easter. I have come to love those times of year. We haven't done too much else with the church calendar beyond these two seasons. But I've been thinking a lot lately about the aptly named Ordinary Time, those times of the year that the church recognizes as non-seasonal, those weeks between the big festive holidays.

Most of life is spent in ordinary time.

And so, in June at Vintage, we have been asking ourselves if God can be found in Ordinary Time. How can we connect with God when we are not having the big, celebratory mountaintop experiences? Can our work be sacred? Do we have eyes to see and ears to hear the beauty of God in the everyday?

Here is the revelation I've had this week: I can't expect more of God than I expect of myself. If I want God to be present with me, I need to be present with God.

So I've been trying to pause to pray more during the course of the day.
I've been trying to take a walk and center myself once per day.
I've been trying to sit and be still more often.

And I am trying to be present.

I find great encouragement in the words of James, "Come near to God, and God will come near to you."

How about you? How do you find the presence of God in the ordinary and in the everyday?

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