I’ve always been more attracted to the ordinary than the spectacular. Maybe that’s just my personality. I’m a little suspicious of the extravagant; wondering if it is genuine or sustainable. The everyday though, that seems to me to be where it’s at; the reality of things, as they are, without adornment.
I remember well a session when I was at theological college. We were being invited to consider our vocation, our life-calling if you will. The task was to create a personal coat-of-arms, to depict our sense of our own mission. My artistic skills were typically non-existent and I can’t remember what I drew, but I knew straight away what I wanted to express: A life that would seek to understand, to express and to share, an awareness and appreciation of God in the everyday. In no way dismissing or demeaning the super-natural, but hauling it into the realm of the ordinary.
I’ve always felt this is important, not only for the sake of my own taste, but for the task of mission too. If our talking about and living for God only appeals to those of religious sensibility, whether Catholic or charismatic, most people will be missed. Jesus, it seems to me, was concerned not to miss anyone, and so he pitched his tent right in the middle of us and walked our streets.
Now, over the years, this passion has worked itself out in a variety of ways and now I thought I’d begin to write about it. Who knows what I will say or where it will lead. No doubt I will reflect a lot on ‘Christian’ things, but I’m not particularly interested in narrowly religious questions, nor about church affairs. There will, no doubt, be much football and film. An ordinary life indeed, but one looking for ‘rumours of glory’, perhaps I will approach each entry with the question; ‘Where have I seen God today and what was he saying?’ I’d love to invite you to ask the same …
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