If your spiritual journey has been
like mine, it has included Sunday School, Bible Studies and Sunday
morning sermons all teaching from the major stories and the key players:
Abraham, Moses, Noah, Jacob, David, Jesus and the 12, Paul, Peter, etc.
If they were alive today, we'd see them in the headlines, on Morning
and Late-night talk shows and probably quoted in blogs. Very quickly we
learned that these were the people worth emulating. "Be like them; do as
they do and you'll have a fantastically Godly life."

And so we have tried to
conform our lives after these spiritual giants. Each life experience
becomes filtered through the lenses of comparison: He's suffering like
Job. She's got a Mary Magdaline story. He's become my Timothy. She's got
Esther's courage. It's almost as if we see remnants of these main
people and their experiences in our lives we know we're on track
somehow, or know how to handle what we're living.

But
what about everyone else in the Bible? What about the countless number
of Jews who quietly and diligently obeyed the God's commands after Moses
presented them from Sinai? Or those who dutifully raised "good Jewish
families" in exile? What about the faithful individuals whose lives were
changed by Christ's ministry in their communities? Or how about the
countless families who dedicated themselves to the house churches and
the blossoming Christian faith amid Roman persecution?

These
stories are more implicitly included in the Scripture, upstaged by the
major figures of our faith. You can catch a glimpse of them throughout
the Gospels: Mark 2:1-12 where a the faith of a few friends brought a
man healing from Christ. Or a few paragraphs later in Mark 12-15 where
many faithful people followed Christ, though they were not selected as
one of "the twelve" (you know, Peter, James, John, Andrew...). It takes a
critical eye to spot them, slowing down when reading to recognize they
are in the background of the stories.

What about these
others Scripture Church history largely ignores? Even though they do
not become the "super heroes of faith", does that automatically
disqualify them from being models for us? I say no,and that they are
worthy of remembering. Though we cannot study their example in the same
way we can with the major figures, we can remember they are still there:

They were the "astonished" and
"amazed" crowds Jesus teaches and ministers. They lived faithfully to
Christ in everyday ways as the members of the apostles' church plants.
They were the ones who provided the apostles with hospitality and
financial support. They passed letters that would become Scriptures
between themselves, unknowingly preserving them for us today. They
shared the Gospel with their communities and helped the faith spread and
the church grow. As you read the New Testament Letters, remember them,
look for them.

So what does this really teach us?

Maybe
we aren't all supposed to become the next Peter or Paul. Maybe we won't
have a successful ministries like Aimee Semple McPherson (founder of
the Foursquare Church) or Billy Graham, write influential books like
Donald Miller, or define worship music like Chris Tomlin. Before you get
too down about it, consider this: It's okay. In fact, that's great.

 We
do not disqualify God's call to be Christ's presence in the world if we
are regular, everyday people, living that everyday way. God's desire to
empower us includes empowering our everyday ways. Your sphere of
influence may be your workplace or your neighborhood, or your family.
That's okay. In fact, that's great.

Wherever you are, God's
call is there in that everyday way. No matter what you do, you worship
God in the way you do it. Serve God in your conduct and relationships
with others. As you go, make God known. Maybe you need to find ways of
living God's call out more intentionally in the everyday way. Maybe you
need God simply to show you what He's already doing in your everyday
ways.

In this everyday way you invite God to become
Lord of your life, not just God of your Bible studies and quiet times,
or just your worship hour or mission trip. God wants to be part of your
marriage, parenting, family. He wants to engage in your work. He wants
to help you treat all of creation with respect, and handle finances
responsibly. Those small everyday things all offer a place and way to
live out your faith. And in fact, in doing so, you carry on the legacy
of those invisible, everyday figures of Scripture.

This
emphasis on everday spirituality is not new: In the early and middle
ages of Church history, the monastic movements saw a need to revive the
sanctity of everyday living of the laity (everyday folk) as a corrective
against the temptation of hyper-spirituality (spiritual superiority and
vanity).

If you are interested here are some books to
check out:

*The Rule of St. Benedict

*Wisdom
Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today by Joan
Chittister

*Desert Wisdom: Sayings from the Desert Fathers by
Yushi Nomura and Henri J. M. Nouwen

If you have any
you suggest, post them in a comment.

I pray God
empowers you and may you fulfill your ministry in that everyday way.