Do you ever sense God in regular daily living stuff? Like when you’re driving or riding the bus / train to work? Doing some grocery shopping? Changing the clothes from the washer to the dryer? Writing emails? Cooking? Doing dishes? Paying bills? Checking the mail? You and I probably have lots of stuff that’s in the daily category and likely doesn’t hasten our heart rate with joy.
However, I think it’s important to keep in mind that Jesus did daily living when He walked the planet and in His daily living, He connected with people in both mundane and incredible ways. For example, at the very start of His ministry, he was strolling along the shore of Galilee, saw Peter, James, John and Andrew, who were doing their fishermen jobs. I suspect that for these guys, the fishermen profession was kind of a routine daily living, without much change nor novelty. Lather, rinse, repeat. And Jesus came into their daily, inviting them to join something bigger than their daily fishing activities and become “fishers of men” by following Jesus. To do this, they had to drop their nets and leave their dad. From that point on, their lives were never the same. The biggest changes in their lives were launched from their mundane daily routines.
In another example of Jesus in the daily, I’m reminded of Jesus and His disciples walking through the fields and picking grain to eat. The religious leaders got snippy about this because it happened to be the Sabbath when they were “harvesting grain.” Jesus turned the whole challenge back on the heads of the religious leaders and let them know that He’s the Lord of the Sabbath. You can read about this in Matthew 12:1-8. Would Jesus want to challenge some of our perceptions or help us experience His provisions in less than conventional ways?
I also see Jesus doing the daily when he sits by a water well in Samaria and asks the nearby Samaritan lady for a drink of water. That simple request was the starting point for a phenomenal conversation where she met Jesus for who He really is, the Messiah, and from which she went back to her town to ultimately lead her entire town to becoming followers of Jesus. All of those results started in the daily activity of drawing water from a well and chatting with a “stranger.”
As we reflect on these daily interactions with Jesus in the Gospels, I think there’s a lot of power and potential in our daily living. Just because it could seem mundane doesn’t mean that we can’t experience or converse with Jesus. For myself, I’m abundantly grateful when I sense Jesus whispering to me through a conversation, I could be having with someone. I’m wonderfully surprised when I hear a song and feel Jesus talking with me through the lyrics. I’m grateful for the times in my car when we have a robust discussion about something that is bothering me or a struggle that I’m trying to work through.
I’d encourage you to look for Jesus and let Him participate in your daily living!
