On ordinary obedience

We have a tendency to mistake spectacle for significance. We imagine that the most important moments of a Christian life will be the dramatic ones — the conversions, the callings, the mountaintop clarities.

But if you read the gospels slowly, what you notice is that most of Jesus' time was spent in rooms, on roads, at tables. He walked. He ate. He answered ordinary questions from ordinary people. The miracles punctuate a life that is, otherwise, mostly unremarkable.

This is an enormous comfort. Because most of our lives will also be, by the world's measure, unremarkable. Laundry. Bills. A difficult conversation. A meal made again. A prayer said quickly over a sink full of dishes.

These are not the interruptions of a holy life. These are the holy life. The obedience that counts is almost always the obedience no one notices.

To live faithfully in the small places is not a consolation prize. It is the thing itself.