What Really Matters

I have taken a break from blogging lately to focus on other writings. I have been working my way through the Psalms with three daily readings along with a thought, meditation, or prayer about just a few verses.  You can get notifications on these from our church app.

This, reading a lot of Wendell Berry, and preparing for a sermon series (starting this Sunday) on the book of Ecclesiastes is making me think about what is (or should be) really important to the people of God.

Many Christian traditions maintain an annual calendar where they highlight certain sacred days like Christmas and Easter, while the majority of the year is referred to as “Ordinary Time.” We are about to embark on a season called Lent, followed by Easter, and then followed by “Ordinary Time” until the next Christmas Season. Now, different traditions mark the calendar in different ways and some highlight other important days, so let’s not get too stuck on dates and he said, she said stuff, ok?

I want to talk about this idea of “ordinary time.” First of all, let me clarify, I don’t think it means what you might think it means. It comes from the latin word “ordinal” or “counted.” It literally means “measured time” not really “mundane time.” But having said that, let me point out that language develops. The word “ordinary” which has come to mean plain or mundane actually comes from the word that meant “ordered, structured, or measured.”

So while we often think of ordinary as a cuss word, or a slight (any ladies out there hoping their husbands will call them ordinary tonight? – Guys, no matter what else I might say, don’t try it) the word actually comes from a structured and intentional sort of living.

In Ordinary Time the faithful were called to live a life of regular and constant faithfulness before the face of God and by the grace of Jesus.

I feel that we have seriously lost this. For one, the most attended days of worship are always Christmas and Easter.  “Ordinary time” doesn’t seem to matter so much anymore.  Rather our culture has trained us to have different perspectives and loves.

If a person were to mark the seasons of American culture I think we would be a four year rotation. I believe it would look like this:

Presidential Election
Golden Globes
Super Bowl
Grammys
Oscars

Golden Globes
Super Bowl
Grammys
Oscars
MidTerm Elections

Golden Globes
Super Bowl
Grammys
Oscars

Golden Globes
Super Bowl
Grammys
Oscars

Presidential Election

Are you picking up what I’m laying down?  Do you get what I am saying?

Based on the media I read, posts on Social Media, and things I hear, I believe that the things that define our deepest loves and longings happen a long way away from home and make very little difference on our day to day lives.

Last year during the presidential election I both made and lost friends because I kept saying over and over that now President Trump should not be a prized candidate among those who called themselves “evangelical Christians.” I never wanted to engage in the “lesser of two evils” or any of that. I merely wanted to take what I still believe is a biblical and Christ centered stance on cultural issues.

Where did that get me? I’m not sure. If one heart was exposed to the gospel of Christ by seeing a Christian pastor stand up and say what I said, then so be it. If one heart was exposed to the possibility that it had a greater love than love for Jesus Christ, wonderful. But Donald Trump is our president, I can honestly say I go on living in much the same was as I did before. That is not to say that my Christian brothers and sisters who are green card holders can all say the same, I realize this is muddy water, but other than the occasional face palm reading twitter, our president has not altered my life.

But do you know what has, and continues to change my life?  Reading the Psalms every day.

The Psalms are a part of the literature in the Bible called “Wisdom literature.”  The idea is that if you want to live the good life, you need the wisdom literature.  Ecclesiastes is also a part of this same section of the Bible.

The writer of Ecclesiastes repeatedly calls us to lament the pointlessness of most of the things we give ourselves to. He says there is no lasting joy or happiness in any of these things.

I believe he would say Presidents come and go, news networks have their day in the sun and then fade away, midterms, awards, and sporting events are all toil or pleasure and at the end of your life you can hold none of this in your hand. Pursuing and loving these things is what the writer would call chasing after the wind.

I am on a process of better self discovery. Not in a narcissistic, self absorbed sort of way, but rather I want to ask questions like “Where was God at certain points in my story?” I want to ask if maybe there is more joy in holding my daughter in my arms than in getting likes on this post? (Of course I know the right answer, but which is true for my stumbling, bumbling heart?)  I want to pursue a more place-oriented, ordinary, and simple life. I want to know my neighbors better than my facebook friends and and my friends better than the president’s tweets. I believe they matter more. We would all be more fulfilled if these things mattered more to all of us.

I think this is what Ordinary Time means. I think it means knowing better who I am before the face of my God and walking more closely to him by the grace of Jesus.

I think it is time to call us all toward a more grounded and Christ centered ordinary life.

This doesn’t mean I won’t still point out the things that call our affections away from Jesus. This may be award shows and national elections. But I also want to be calling us toward something. Toward living with our intentions and our affections focused on today. On where we are in God’s big story. Toward a more ordinary life.

This approaching season of Lent is a time for calling us to this.  The book of Ecclesiastes continually reminds us that we are not everything we think we are.  Our hopes will not be fulfilled in the grand and majestic things of this world.  Our longings will never be satisfied in the big moments, the large paychecks, the glamour filled celebrations.  These things are already fading from view.  The Super Bowl, which dominated the news today will be soon forgotten, and the winners will stash their rings in a safety deposit box and one day show them to their grandchildren.  That moment will sweeter than last night’s victory, because the ordinary is what really makes up life.

Will you join us for the next several weeks as we explore the book of Ecclesiastes together?  Will you commit to joining me on discovering what it might mean to live an ordinary and faithful life?