AN ANOINTING FOR THE MUNDANE

It’s a crisp morning and the orange hues are already streaking across the European sky. It’s 4:15am and we awaken to the sound of early birds tweeting for anyone who cared to listen. (We are suffering from Jet lag)  It is beautiful outside. I take my dog out so he can sniff the scent of all the night’s marauding stray animals. As he runs around, as if he’s chasing rabbits, I often wonder what goes through his head when he inhales all those strange odors. “Ah, that’s the dog from up the road; he’s so skinny he’s not a threat to me. Or, that’s the Heinz 57 breed; he’s definitely no danger to my territory.” After a few minutes I bring him back inside and make coffee for Noline and myself. We sit on the bed and have a short discussion of today’s activities. I decide first off to blog while it’s still cool. You know the old colloquialism; “Red sky at night is a shepherd’s delight, red sky in the morning is a shepherds warning.” Meaning, it will be cool in the evening and morning but really hot by midday. So I take advantage of the cool morning. Welcome to Ukraine!

We arrived back yesterday from the whirlwind trip to New York, London, Stoke on Trent, Liverpool and Norwich. I spoke to an executive board and at two leaders’ meetings. But now our internal timetable is horribly messed up. We want to sleep when we should be awake and are awake when we should be sleeping. But this is the mundane of life for which there is an anointing to get things accomplished.

This morning I have a plethora of thoughts running through my mind. There is a fence to purchase and install so my dog does not dig up the neighbors garden. There’s a closet to build so my wife doesn’t kill me as we are still living out of boxes a year plus after leaving NYC. Then there are ministry trips to arrange and leaders to call; I have to get my car serviced, do registration so we can stay in the country and go to the American Embassy to have a form stamped and signed. Believe me; we need an anointing for the mundane!

As I write this I think of the millions of moms who are not in the work force outside their homes. Many could go as attaché’s to foreign countries with the training they have had. They constantly avert near World War three episodes with children who refuse to listen. They could easily handle top executive positions, since they are so qualified in multitasking; laundry, cooking, cleaning with the constant barrage of; “mom where’s my shirt? Or mom, where’s my lunch box.” They deal with the same myriad of issues as you and I and yet may suffer with thoughts of, “I’m so unspiritual.” So for all you stay at home moms and dads, there is an anointing for the mundane.

You can tap into this anointing today. Realize God sees you as spiritual because His Son is resident in your heart. Spirituality is not deemed by what you do or don’t do, it is reckoned by who you have in your life. Remember, “God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning.”

(Lam 3:22-23, from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)