Wednesday  |  February 2, 2011  |  00:00 AM

Have you ever been in a season of life where you feel like time is something you have as a resource? In busy seasons we often envy these people, jealous of their freedom to use their days as it suits them with plenty of hours to spare. The past few months I’ve found myself juggling multiple part-time jobs, mostly from home, but generally having the wonderful ability to schedule my days as I see fit. It's taken me time to see the value in things that can feel mundane, like walking the dogs, going to the grocery store, and cooking meals at home. I recognize this is a luxury and such a gift of grace that many cannot afford, placing myself in a category of privilege. But I also recognize that this makes me like many folks from around the world.

What I mean in this last thought is that having time allows for us to see the sacred in the ordinary. If I continue to attempt to practice the presence of God, seeking the divine in the everyday, mundane tasks, I am presented with the opportunity to view everything as spiritual. John Wesley is quoted as saying “the world is my parish.” For the Friends, this could not be truer. The spiritual life seeks to place God as primary in everything and letting all parts of life settle around this ideal, in everything from chores to conversations.

The church calendar recognizes the season we’re in now, prior to Lent, as ordinary time. During this season, green is used as the color the church tells the season in, symbolizing growth. I find this so fitting. The ordinary seasons are a time for growth, new life being discovered as a part of all of our redeemed new life from the resurrection. There is such great value for the Christian to take small, insignificant moves of faithfulness for God.

With an appreciation of the ordinary time and simple rhythms comes a movement towards making peace with the everyday. We can too often get caught up in adventure and places beyond where we are instead of valuing our own communities. The slogan “think global, live local” comes to mind. Simplifying our habits allows for a greater appreciation for our cities, discovering beauty in the people and architecture, and supporting the businesses in this community. In his book, Sidewalks of the Kingdom, Eric Jacobson propones that “as Christians, we can assess our economic decisions not only for the jobs and local culture they support, but also for he relationships that they build.” Walking in your community, investing there, building relationships with people around you, getting involved in local issues, and volunteering are all just a few simple ways where the Church can show their community that it has worth. All cities have beauty and the ability to be redeemed when we stop viewing them as dirty, undesirable neighborhoods. Christ redeems our everyday lives and sees all of our ordinary parts as having beauty. In the same way, being a part of the Kingdom of God invites us to see every little boring, basic part of the globe as beautiful pieces, worth investing in. We don’t trust and value people for what they can do for us, or even because we will be a part of their lives or community forever, but merely because Christ invests in us and invites us to view every person as significant.

The author of Jeremiah writes, “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” It’s becoming easier and easier today to live completely disconnected from our neighborhoods. We can start to feel as though in our busy-ness and desire to be everywhere, we are located nowhere. This passages, and one of the greater themes for the Israelite people, was the idea of their identity being wrapped up in the state of the community. I believe this is true today. I invite all of us to consider how our prosperity (in the sense of true health and wholeness) is connected to that of every little part of our neighborhoods and routines in our cities. May we see the growth of the Kingdom of God in our communities as connected to our own spiritual development, part of our shared life together.