Discovery - How Does an Ordinary Woman Live Her Ordinary Life as Jesus’ Disciple?
In Monday’s Morning Meditation, I discussed my experience with crafting a Rule of Life.
Living out my faith as an authentic follower of Jesus with integrity and congruence is terribly important to me. I would be the first to say I don’t always do so well where the rubber of my faith meets the road of my life. But as I keep gaining awareness, confessing shortfalls, and listening for and saying yes to the “still, small voice” of the Spirit, God’s graciousness and patience helps me learn and grow. Becoming a fully committed disciple of Jesus is a lifelong process!
Recently, I read this little poem by Mary Oliver:
“It is a serious thing
Just to be alive
On this fresh morning
In this broken world.”
I loved Oliver’s simple thought and paraphrased a couple lines:
“It is a serious [and joyous] thing
Just to be alive [and following Jesus]
On this fresh morning
In this broken world.”
In my opinion, Romans 12 may be the clearest chapter in the Bible for instructions on how to practically live out day-to-day life as Christ’s disciple. I appreciate Eugene Peterson’s translation in The Message. The first two verses became the guiding Scripture I used when developing my Rule of Life.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2 MSG)
Blessings on your journey,
