LOVING HIM IN THE MUNDANE

            Two years ago, I realized I had an addiction. I was an “events” junkie. Nothing sends up shivers down my spine more than a spectacular event-- an out of the ordinary experience. Somehow there was an unsettling feeling whenever my days would seem run-of-the-mill. And my life in general had to matter. Even though I was barely 21 years old then, I had this nagging itch within me to do something significant for humanity. My motivation was simple, to make Jesus Christ known… in the grandest way possible. In my youthful, overly zealous mind, God deserved nothing less than “radical”. Ordinary or average was simply not an option. So the past two years were spent on exactly just that.

             

            Right after graduation, I juggled full time work in the Congress as a consultant and a number of ministries in church. I fed the poor, reached out to the prostituted women, taught Bible lessons to street children, provided for missionaries, lead prayer meetings, organized evangelistic concerts with thousands in attendance, said yes to so many speaking engagements, attended conferences after another. Everything I did was grand. The next year, I enrolled to study Theology in ATS while finishing an online degree in Diplomacy. Sensing that I had a couple of hours of free time I applied for a job, which placed me in a whirlwind of activities: going all over Manila to organize one event after another. So you see, “events” was my opium.  

            Picture that adrenaline-induced lifestyle I just narrated and juxtapose it to my current one. I wake up at 6am and after breakfast I study for eight hours straight, glued to the same chair all day long. I go to class by 5pm and stay there until 9pm, then head home, eat dinner and sleep. Then the routine goes on the next day, from Mondays through Saturdays. Eat, sleep and study. How uneventful, right? Needless to say, it’s a world of difference from the action-packed life I had the past two years. When before, “routine” was such a dreaded thing, now I actually have learned to live with it and embrace the “r” word every single day. I guess this is the reason why I hesitated for so long to enter law school. The thought of being locked down for four to five years of my life, solely dedicated to the study of law was a nightmare. I didn’t want to be removed from the battlefield. There was no place I would rather be but in the frontlines. To me, being in law school is analogous to a soldier who ends up brushing the toilet bowl and fixing the bunk when his comrades are out there getting killed in the combat zone, one hand putting pressure on a wounded leg and the other firing shots at the enemy. I wanted action! And I was certain I will not get any in law school.

            My phobia of the mundane gradually disappeared when I became part of the Heroes Community. Slowly but surely the gospel transformed my heart and renewed my very narrow mind. Hearing the gospel again and again made me see that Jesus Christ lived and thrived in the ordinary. In the Stepford God Series, I became more aware of one attribute of God that we so often overlook, His humanity. We are too fascinated by the exalted God: the burning bush, peels of thunder and lightning, the magnificent scene in the throne room. But we so often forget that the same exalted God was also incarnated in Jesus Christ. He was robed in glory and adorned by the majesty of heaven but entered humanity in the form of a lowly babe. I could just imagine him, growing up just like any other Jewish teen. The God of the universe who fashioned the world into being, learns how to pound a nail against the wood to make a table. The One who spoke words and life came about, had to learn the Torah as a young lad and go through the rigors of study to become a Rabi. Jesus Christ’s 33 years of existence, was not all about signs, wonders and miracles. He was fully Divine, yes, but also fully human. Humanity entails Him going through the mundane experiences of life and yet glorifying His Father in Heaven in everything. “He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God” (Hebrews 2:17).

        Studying the Book of Hebrews made me appreciate that who Jesus Christ is and what He has done is more than enough for me. I need not strive to live an extraordinary life, because I am living for Him—whose love for me is nothing close to ordinary. My life right now is a far cry from the ones laid out in the Hall of Faith in chapter 11 of Hebrews, but it’s fine by me. I may not shut the mouths of lions, see the dead raised to life again, die a martyr’s death, but I know I have my God’s approval as I glorify him in the humdrums of my everyday existence. It doesn’t really matter to God if the things that we do for him is grand or simple, big or small. What counts in the economy of heaven, is the amount of love you put in. As I fix my eyes on Jesus, there can be magic in the mundane. So to today, I worship God and glorify Him as I brew my coffee in the morning, as I write my notes for class, as I underline every doctrine in my law books and as I carry out my household chores. Even though schedule in school is defined by routine, I realized that when you’re in love with Him, everything becomes beautiful—even the most ordinary things in the most ordinary days. So yeah, I don’t mind being in the sidelines and brushing the toilet bowl!