The Quotidian Mysteries

For those of you who might wonder if and when my proposed book, The Sacredness of the Mundane will actually be written (I am included in this group), today I came across a quote that perfectly articulates how I feel:

[speaking of the writing process] “And it always seems that just when daily life seems most unbearable, stretching out before me like a prison sentence, when I seem most dead inside, reduced to mindlessness, bitter tears or both, that what is inmost breaks forth, and I realize that what had seemed “dead time” was actually a period of gestation.”

I am gestating.  What I mean is, I am living.  I am living the sacredness of the mundane, learning, aching, crying, laughing,  growing.  I am finally creating significant margin in my life and able to soak in the Word and prayer.  I’m running and musing and walking and worshipping.  And, quite honestly, I’m hurting.  Jeff and I are talking through some things that have been brewing for some time, things that must be worked through (not with each other just personal things in general).  And, I am beginning to see that first this idea, this vision, is much larger than writing it all down in book form. In fact, I don’t know that I have the writing talent to even compile my ideas into a book that will make its way past my family and faithful blog-followers. But that’s not the point.  The point is that God has asked me to make my life be all about enabling women (and men, Lord willing!)to live out the sacredness of the mundane.

This began to make sense more as recently sat in a women’s ministry meeting.  Joy and I have recently begun to fulfill a leadership role for the women of our church, and as I articulated my heart for women’s ministry–this vision was what flowed out of my mouth.  I hadn’t even planned on sharing it, but I soon realized that if you poke me hard enough I will bleed The Sacredness of the Mundane.  My heart beats, It all matters, it all matters, it all matters.  Upon hearing my heart for this topic, a friend suggested I read a short book entitled The Quotidian Mysteries.  Wow.  It has broken the water and I feel like so much of what was gestating is finally being birthed in my heart and mind.  Of course I’m including the disclaimer that the book certainly isn’t gospel-truth in every regard. But it certainly spoke to my soul. I’m simply including some quotes, mostly so I don’t forget them!  And, so you can savor them rather than scarfing them down like fast-food, I’ll only include a few each day:

“As a human being, Jesus Christ was as subject to the daily as any of us. And I see both the miracle of manna and the incarnation of Jesus Christ as scandals.  They suggest that God is intimately concerned with our very bodies and their needs, and I doubt that this is really what we want to hear. Our bodies fail us, they grow old, flabby and feeble, and eventually they lead us to the cross. How tempting it is to disdain what God has created, and to retreat into comfortable gnosticism…[Christianity] views he human body as our God-given means to salvation, for beyond the cross God has effected resurrection.”  p. 11-12

[On creating spiritual disciplines of prayer, study of the Word, meditation,worship]:  “Workaholism is the opposite of humility…I know from bitter experience that when I allow busy little things to fill the precious time of early morning, when contemplation might flourish, I open the doors to the demon of acedia (spiritual torpor).  Noon becomes a blur–no time, no time–the wolfing down of a sandwich as I listen to the morning’s phone messages and plan the afternoon’s errands.  When evening comes I am so exhausted that vespers (evening prayer) becomes impossible. It is as if I have taken the world’s weight on my shoulders and am too greedy, and too foolish, to surrender it to God.” p. 25