Slideshow image

We all have chores: loading the dishwasher, folding laundry, wiping surfaces, cleaning the bathroom, making the bed.

Last week, Catherine and I completed several chores. We left an old computer monitor at the Transfer Station. We took three bags of bottles to recycling. We exchanged an empty propane tank. We bought groceries.

Most of us look upon chores as unavoidable. We’re apt to feel much like the author of Ecclesiastes, who said in chapter 1 verse 9: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”

Some years ago, I was struck by a phrase that said, “Discipleship is not lived on the mountain top but in the valley.” We love mountain tops – the views are majestic, the experience like no other. But it’s hard to live life on top of a mountain. It’s in the valleys, with the daily routines of loading the dishwasher, folding laundry, grocery shopping, or recycling bottles, that the quality of our discipleship is expressed. It’s in the ordinary and routine that Christ forms us into his likeness. It is the mundane that becomes the forge where the character of our worship is refined and purified by the Holy Spirit.

We seek spiritual “highs”, moments of glorious intimacy with God, where nothing else seems to matter. But more-often-than-not, God wants us to connect with him in the ordinary, the unspectacular, the simple. So, as we buy groceries, we thank the Lord for our daily bread. As we recycle bottles, we remember to be good stewards of the world God created. As we sweep the floor, we consider how Jesus wipes away every tear and will make all things new.

There is nothing new under the sun, Ecclesiastes says, but that’s OK – God invites us to meet him in the ordinary tasks of life.

大家早。

我們都有一些例行公事要做，如，洗碗、摺衣服、擦桌子、洗廁所和整理床。

上星期，太太和我完成了一些例行工作。我們把舊的電腦螢幕拿去回收站，帶了三袋的罐子去回收，交換了一個空的瓦斯桶，和買了菜。

我想大多數人都把家務視為一種必要的邪惡。我們很容易覺得像傳道書作者在1章9節中說的：

“已有的事、後必再有．已行的事、後必再行．日光之下並無新事。”

幾年前，我讀到的一句話很被打動。這說：“門徒不是住在山頂上，而是住在山谷裡。” 我們喜歡山頂 - 景色雄偉，體驗與眾不同。但是在山頂上過門徒的生活是很困難的。正是在山谷中，透過每日的洗碗、摺衣服、買菜或回收瓶子等的日常生活中，我們門徒訓練的品質得到了體現。正是在平凡和例行公事中，基督將我們塑造成他的樣式。世俗成為鍛鍊場，在那裡我們敬拜的品格被聖靈提煉和凈化。

我們尋求屬靈的“高潮”，就是與神榮耀親密的時刻，在那裡似乎沒有什麼重要。但更多時候，神希望我們在平凡、不引人注目、簡單的情況下與他連結。因此，當我們買菜時，我們感謝主賜給我們每天的糧食。當我們回收瓶子時，我們記得要成為神所創造世界的好管家。當我們掃地時，我們會思考耶穌如何擦去每一滴眼淚，使萬物煥然一新。

傳道書說，日光底下沒有新鮮事，但這沒關係—神邀請我們在生活例行公事中與他相遇。

讓我們禱告.

Grace and peace

Pastor Callum