Ordinary Time

 My church doesn't use the liturgical calendar nor did the church of my youth but I've become familiar with it through reading and interacting with christians of other denominations. I've made it part of my walk with Christ. I believe there's something special about remembering parts of our faith at the same time as christians of all denominations in all parts of the world at the same time. Awesome things happen when the body of Christ is in one accord just look in Acts chapter 2. The church uses the liturgical calendar to celebrate certain events in church history and fast and feast in reverence for the sovereign Lord. While it's obvious why events like Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Lent, and even Advent are important to remember for the Christian, two sections of the calendar always baffled me. They both have the same name and take place between the biggest christian celebrations. Ordinary time. The time where nothing is celebrated. No particular event remembered. Business as usual. Some denominations remove this time from their calendar completely likely because they were just as baffled as me. I have since however come to love ordinary time. I've come to realize that while we celebrate the huge miraculous events such as the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the arrival of the Holy Spirit and the tempting of Jesus in the wilderness we miss out on so much in between. Jesus didn't just sit around doing nothing in "ordinary time" in fact I've learned it's typically in the ordinary God does the extraordinary. I have looked back on my life and seen it's usually during the times I'm not celebrating, not expecting, that God moves the mountains in my way. Some of the smallest sometimes most painful moments in my life God has changed the course of my life. One moment in "ordinary time" could lead to the greatest miracles. I had a friend I was pretty mean to and when I got saved I realized I needed to make things right. I had no way to contact him so I prayed God would let him know somehow. I saw a suggested friend on Facebook one day and it was him. I told him how sorry I was and he told me he didn't even feel like I'd even hurt him. We talked a little longer and he told me thank you. I asked why and he said it was because he was just about to kill himself until I talked to him and made him feel like somebody cared. Ordinary time. When I think of ordinary time in the perspective of a westernized churchgoer it's no big deal but to think of it from the perspective of the man Jesus told to take up his mat and walk ordinary time is something extraordinary. Ordinary time is life changing. If you ask blind Bartimeus or the man with the shriveled hand, the lepers, or the demon posessed they'll tell you there's nothing ordinary when it comes to Jesus. I gain a lot spiritually from Lent and Advent Christmas and Easter but there's nothing like a God that will intervene on an average Tuesday! I thank God for ordinary time now because though we may be bound by time and season God is bound by nothing. My life and yours could change tomorrow with the most amazing of miracles disguised as ordinary time. Now when I look at those blank spaces between holidays and feasts I say ok God now's the time. I'm an ordinary man in ordinary time but I serve an extraordinary God.