The Ordinary to the Extraordinary

This morning in Mark Batterson’s In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day I read this: “Here is a novel thought; What if actually did what they did in the Bible? [Ten days together in the upper room, then the coming of Pentecost.] What if we fasted and prayed for ten days? What if we sought God with some ancient intensity instead of spending all our energy trying to eliminate His surprises? Maybe then we’d experience some ancient miracles.”

I don’t know if I could fast ten days, but I sure as heck can fast for a day. I cannot take more time off work to do it, but that’s OK — fasting and prayer does not require retreat. Even when we’re working, fasting and prayer parallel our service. Even workdays can become days of prayer.

And shoot, didn’t Jesus lead a normal life before His ministry? A son, a brother, a carpenter. Even during his ministry on earth he ate, walked, talked, slept. The miraculous breaks into and transforms the ordinary. And even the ordinary shines in the light of its Creator, however fallen ordinary may be — for the present.