Holy Ordinary

Quakers believe that faith and daily living are married. We need to learn to see God is present in the normal stuff of life -- work, family, pets, home, our communities of faith. As English Friend William Littleboy wrote:
God is above all the God of the normal. In the common facts and circumstances of life, He draws near to us, quietly. He teaches us in the routine of life’s trifles, gently, and unnoticed His guidance comes to us through the channels of ‘reason [and] judgment’… we have been taught by Him when we least suspected it; we have been guided … though the guiding hand rested upon us so lightly that we were unaware of its touch.

Carrie Newcomer (www.carrienewcomer.com) expresses this in her song “Holy as a Day is Spent:” -- "Holy is the dish and drain/The soap and sink, and the cup and plate" she begins, and ends with "Holy is the place I stand/To give whatever small good I can/And the empty page, and the open book/Redemption everywhere I look."

Newcomer’s song reflects the Quaker belief that God is the God of the daily – and the daily reveals the deity. It leads us into a new way of seeing – a way of seeing the invisible hand of God in all that we have been blessed with. Rufus Jones said, “We find Him when we enjoy beauty.”

-- Brent