the ordinary stuff.
12.13.2023
I often misunderstand the ordinary stuff in life as interruptions, and God has been correcting this in me throughout the last year and a half. God started this pruning in me in May 2022 while living in Columbus and listening to a sermon. It was about how we often view perceived interruptions as setbacks or road bumps on the trip of life. The pastor was preaching this based on the scripture when Jesus healed the woman with the issue of blood in Matthew 9:20-22. He pointed out that Jesus was on his way to perform an extraordinary miracle when this “interruption” miracle happened. Jesus was on his way to bring a dead little girl back to life after her father, a Roman ruler over the Jews, pleaded with Jesus to do so. Jesus was “interrupted” by the desperate woman suffering from bleeding for 12 years. She was touching the edge of Jesus’ clothes in faith for healing, indirectly slowing him down on his way to resurrect the Roman ruler’s daughter. The pastor pointed out how the father of the little girl was likely beside himself worrying about his daughter’s healing being delayed; thinking “Jesus, how could you get distracted from what I need you do?! The life or death of my daughter is so much more pressing than this interrupting lady’s long term issue.” The pastor highlighted that as Jesus healed the bleeding woman, he called her daughter; this intimate name “daughter” was a powerful experience for her, especially as a person who was isolated from society and viewed as unclean for over a decade. We were encouraged to look to Jesus in every “interruption” of life, to trust that those moments are are part of His plan. God had Nick and I listening to this sermon during a perceived interruption in our church home journey. A year prior, we had moved on from a long-term church home of ten years and were still grieving this. We were spending time worshipping at an unexpected church on the other side of Columbus. We were holding tons of unknowns of what the future looked like for us, and waiting for God to guide us to our next church home. We had absolutely no idea God had planned for us to be at home here at Abundant Life Church in Lewis County, New York.
Often God is intentionally molding our hearts in the ordinary and in between times, the valleys. This rang true to me a few Sundays ago during Pastor Matt’s sermon about the narrative of the Lord. He shared about how the narrative of the Lord is what links us moment to moment; it is what links the highs and lows of life. He encouraged us that most of life is spent in the regular valleys. He encouraged us with Jesus’ zeal in Matthew 9:18-22, Jesus’ passion that didn’t panic. He encouraged us that to grow in zeal we must spend time with our Abba God. I left worship that Sunday encouraged by our invitation to spend time with our Lord not only on the exciting mountaintops and difficult dark cave moments, but in the many valley strolls in between.
God is growing zeal in us in ways that cannot be done on the mountaintops. I was recently processing this with a friend, and she encouraged me through sharing her personal life experience and a devotional she read recently: “the test of our spiritual life is the power to descend; if we have the power to rise only, something is wrong. It is a great thing to be on the mount with God, but a man only gets there in order that afterwards he may get down among the devil-possessed and lift them up…we are not built for the mountains…those are for moments of inspiration and that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in.” How life giving this was for me to hear!
Hiking through valleys is beautiful. That’s the part of the hike you notice small delights along the way like pretty moss or the way the sun shines through the trees. The valley is either the beginning part of the hike you look forward to seeing the unknown epic summit view, or the way back to the trailhead when you remember and treasure that 360 degree lookout. It’s the part of the hike that you celebrate your triumph in making it through the challenges of the hike; whether that was simply just starting the unknown trail despite the nervous butterflies in your belly, or when you persevered when you doubted you could. Maybe the celebration is from surviving when you almost got attacked by a moose, accidentally got off the trail, or ran out of water (personal experience with all of the above)! The valley is the part of the adventure that you enjoy the company of your fellow travelers step by step together, our Abba and those other crazy hikers.There is something extraordinary about embracing the ordinary valleys of life with Jesus, especially together with my husband, and our church body.Nicole Topits