Living in the Everyday

Everyday. Everyday things seem so mundane. They seem so normal. They often feel like drudgery. But God has been showing me that is where He has called me to live. He has not called me to live in the great things, or in the wonderful experiences. God has just given me a time on the "mountaintop" at Advanced Excel to see Him, like He gave Peter, John, and James on the Mount of Transfiguration. But I am not called to live in the wonderful experience I had. Oswald Chambers said in My Utmost for His Highest,

After every time of exaltation, we are brought down with a sudden rush into things as they really are, where it is neither beautiful, poetic, nor thrilling. The height of the mountaintop is measured by the dismal drudgery of the valley, but it is in the valley that we have to live for the glory of God. We see His glory on the mountain, but we never live for His glory there. It is in the place of humiliation that we find our true worth to God -- that is where our faithfulness is revealed. Most of us can do things if we are at some heroic level of intensity, simply because of the natural selfishness of our own hearts. But God wants us to be at the drab everyday level, where we live in the valley according to our personal relationship with Him.

I have found this to be very true, and I have been challenged by these words of Oswald Chambers to make the most of the everyday things God has called me to. If the things I have learned and experienced on my mountaintops are not made a part of my everyday life they have not done me any good. Living in the everyday is a lot harder than being on the mountaintop, but it is the place where I am called to live. The person I truly am is revealed in the way I live my everyday.

Lisa

What's in a Necklace

A couple of weeks ago, I sat outside in the the courtyard of the Dallas Ministry Center on a date with God. As I sat in the sunlight, colored light was streaming onto the white pages of my journal. Looking for the source of the light, I discovered that it was coming from the cut bead necklace around my neck. The necklace, sparkling in the sunshine, was reflecting the light of the sun.
When the sunlight passed through the necklace, it changed. It was no longer ordinary sunlight. It became radiant beams of red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple.
While the sunlight was always there, the light became more noticeable when the necklace lay in its path. As it traveled through the beads, the light became the focal point. Its beauty increased, as well as that of the necklace. The necklace needed the light to be beautiful, and the sunlight needed the necklace to reveal its hidden qualities.
As I looked at the light, I realized that I am just like my necklace. When God's light shines through me, He becomes more noticeable to those around me, like the sunlight was to me. While God is always there, others see Him more clearly when I am walking with Him.
Each "beam" of light that reflects from my walk with God goes a separate direction, affecting different people. Each "beam" is a little different, portraying a distinct "color" or quality of Christ. When people see Christ's light reflected from my life, they will not say, "Wow! Look at that necklace." They will say, "Wow! Look at that light!"

Lisa Dzimianski