Grace and Drudgery

I read something this morning from Oswald Chambers that got me thinking.

BTW if you're not a reader (first of all you're probably not reading this) but if you're not a reader you should be. Through reading we can access the wisdom and counsel of a multitude of men and women both living and dead who can assist us in our pursuit of Jesus.

Sorry about the mini-rant, now we can move on. What was I saying? Oh right, I read something this morning from Oswald Chambers that got me thinking. He made the following observation:

Walking on water is easy to someone with impulsive boldness, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is something altogether different... We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises - human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus.

I read those words and thought, "Wow! He's right." When we experience crises we instinctively turn to God because we recognize that we cannot handle the situation. As the old saying goes, "There are no atheists in foxholes." Crises, dangers, and emergencies heighten our awareness of our need for God. But no one lives in a constant state of crisis or emergency. By their very nature these situations are exceptional.

So what happens to us when we are not in the midst of crisis. Let's take a look at scripture. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses told the people of Israel to be on their guard once they entered and conquered the land of Canaan and were at peace (Deuteronomy 6:10-12). He warned them that once the crisis of the conquest of the land had passed and they settled comfortably into their new life in Canaan that they would be susceptible to forgetting God. Crisis heightens our awareness of our need for God. Routine dulls that same awareness.

Thus Chambers' admonition that it requires the supernatural grace of God to live "an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus." We all understand that in the times of trial our devotion to Christ will be tested, but we must also see that a routine life of every day drudgery is often just as a big a test our faith as the times of crisis.

Most Christians will not have a life story that would make it into Foxe's Book of Martyrs or even warrant an article in The Voice of the Martyrs, but every Christian will experience the monotony of routine, every day life. Understand that it requires God's supernatural grace both to "walk on water" and to walk the every day paths of ordinary life.