Common
Here are some excerpts that stood out to me from the chapter A Cure for the Common Life in the book Next Door Savior by Max Lucado:
The [carpentry] job may have been common, but his diligence was not. Jesus took his work seriously. And the town may have been common, but his attention to it was not. The city of Nazareth sits on a summit. Certainly no Nazarene boy could resist an occasional hike to the crest to look out over the valley beneath. Sitting six hundred feet above the level of the sea, the young Jesus could examine this world he had made. Mountain flowers in the spring. Cool sunsets. Pelicans...Fields and fig trees in the distance. Do you suppose moments here inspired these words later? "Observe how the lilies of the field grow" (Matt. 6:28) or "Look at the birds of the air" (Matt. 6:26). The words of Jesus the rabbi were born in the thoughts of Jesus the boy...
...Jesus listened to his common life. Are you listening to yours? Rain pattering against the window. Silent snow in April. The giggle of a baby on a crowded plane. Seeing a sunrise while the world sleeps. Are these not personal epistles? Can't God speak through a Monday commute or a midnight diaper change? Take notes on your life.
Next time your life feels ordinary, take your cue from Christ. Pay attention to your work and your world. Jesus' obedience began in a small carpentry shop....
But Jesus didn't stay in his safe little shop. He left in pursuit of something greater.
Not that he had to. Nazareth was a cozy town. Why not build a carpentry business? Keep his identity a secret?...To be forced to die is one thing, but to willingly take up your own cross is something else. Alan and Penny McIlroy can tell you that. The fact that they have two adopted children is commendable but not uncommon...It's the severity of the health problems that sets this story apart.
Saleena is a cocaine baby. Her mother's overdose left Saleena unable to hear, see, speak, or move. Penny and Alan adopted her at seven weeks. The doctor gave her a year. She's lived for six...one-year-old Destiny [lays] motionless and vegetative...[their parents will] bathe them, change them, adjust their feeding tubes, and rub their limp limbs, but barring God's intervention, this mom and dad will never hear more than we heard that afternoon - gurgled breathing. "I need to suction Saleena's nose," Penny said to me. "You might want to leave."
I did, and as I did, I wondered, what kind of love is this? What kind of love adopts disaster? What kind of love looks into the face of children knowing full well the weight of their calamity, and says, "I'll take them"?
When you come up with a word for such a love, give it to Christ. For the day he left Nazareth is the day he declared his devotion for you and me. We were just as helpless, in a spiritually vegetative state from sin. According to Peter, our lives were "dead-end, empty-headed" (1 Pet. 1:18 MSG). But God, "immense in mercy and with an incredible love…embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!" (Eph 2:4-5 MSG).
The [carpentry] job may have been common, but his diligence was not. Jesus took his work seriously. And the town may have been common, but his attention to it was not. The city of Nazareth sits on a summit. Certainly no Nazarene boy could resist an occasional hike to the crest to look out over the valley beneath. Sitting six hundred feet above the level of the sea, the young Jesus could examine this world he had made. Mountain flowers in the spring. Cool sunsets. Pelicans...Fields and fig trees in the distance. Do you suppose moments here inspired these words later? "Observe how the lilies of the field grow" (Matt. 6:28) or "Look at the birds of the air" (Matt. 6:26). The words of Jesus the rabbi were born in the thoughts of Jesus the boy...
...Jesus listened to his common life. Are you listening to yours? Rain pattering against the window. Silent snow in April. The giggle of a baby on a crowded plane. Seeing a sunrise while the world sleeps. Are these not personal epistles? Can't God speak through a Monday commute or a midnight diaper change? Take notes on your life.
"There is no event so commonplace but that God is present
within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room
to recognize him or not recognize him...See [your life]
for the fathomless mystery that it is.
In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the
excitement and gladness: touch, taste, and
smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it
because in the last analysis all moments
are key moments, and life itself is grace."
(George Connor, comp., "Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner")
within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room
to recognize him or not recognize him...See [your life]
for the fathomless mystery that it is.
In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the
excitement and gladness: touch, taste, and
smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it
because in the last analysis all moments
are key moments, and life itself is grace."
(George Connor, comp., "Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations with Frederick Buechner")
Next time your life feels ordinary, take your cue from Christ. Pay attention to your work and your world. Jesus' obedience began in a small carpentry shop....
But Jesus didn't stay in his safe little shop. He left in pursuit of something greater.
Not that he had to. Nazareth was a cozy town. Why not build a carpentry business? Keep his identity a secret?...To be forced to die is one thing, but to willingly take up your own cross is something else. Alan and Penny McIlroy can tell you that. The fact that they have two adopted children is commendable but not uncommon...It's the severity of the health problems that sets this story apart.
Saleena is a cocaine baby. Her mother's overdose left Saleena unable to hear, see, speak, or move. Penny and Alan adopted her at seven weeks. The doctor gave her a year. She's lived for six...one-year-old Destiny [lays] motionless and vegetative...[their parents will] bathe them, change them, adjust their feeding tubes, and rub their limp limbs, but barring God's intervention, this mom and dad will never hear more than we heard that afternoon - gurgled breathing. "I need to suction Saleena's nose," Penny said to me. "You might want to leave."
I did, and as I did, I wondered, what kind of love is this? What kind of love adopts disaster? What kind of love looks into the face of children knowing full well the weight of their calamity, and says, "I'll take them"?
When you come up with a word for such a love, give it to Christ. For the day he left Nazareth is the day he declared his devotion for you and me. We were just as helpless, in a spiritually vegetative state from sin. According to Peter, our lives were "dead-end, empty-headed" (1 Pet. 1:18 MSG). But God, "immense in mercy and with an incredible love…embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us!" (Eph 2:4-5 MSG).
Jesus left