(This is part four of an ongoing series called “Whole Life Worship 101.” If you would like to read previous blogs in this series, click here)

One of the frustrations I have in living out the Christian life is connecting with Jesus outside of my one-on-one Personal Worship Times. After a great time with Jesus in the morning, my tendency is to forget about Him the rest of the day. This is never intentional, but simply a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” When Jesus is out my sight, He tends to be out of my mind, my thinking, my awareness.

Does that happen to you?

What helped change this for me is what I call “Worship in the Everyday Ordinary” (WIEO). Through writers like Richard Foster (“Celebration of Discipline”), Jean-Paul DeCassaude (“Sacrament of the Present Moment”) and Brother Lawrence (“The Practice of the Presence of God”), I learned that the everyday ordinary moments in my life are opportunities to intentionally invite Jesus into them.

The key word to the WIEO paradigm is “invite.” Jesus comes into my life when I invite Him. The beautiful illustration of this is Revelation 3:20. We see Jesus knocking the door of our lives. But He can’t come in, unless we open the door and invite Him in. Of course, this is true when we first invite Jesus into our lives and ask Him to be our Savior and Lord. But it’s also true with ANY other time of our lives. Jesus wants to come in every aspect, every moment of our lives. Why? Because He loves you and me! He desires for us to “abide” in Him and Him in us (John 15:4-8). He knows that we can’t do life right or well without Him. He knows that we won’t experience fruitfulness in our lives without Him.

Yes, this definitely means those big moments in life when we desperately need His help or His guidance. But Jesus also wants to be invited into our smaller moments, our everyday ordinary moments. And when we invite Him into those type of moments, it’s amazing to see how He can transform them and us.

I learned this in a very practical way: After having a great personal worship time, I got into my car and started driving to work. On my way, this car cut me off on the freeway. I was incensed and wanted to react back with some choice words and gestures. But, instead, I invited Jesus into that moment. I took a deep breath and after a few moments, I heard the Spirit say to me, “Pray for that guy who cut you off. He is created in My image. Do not respond with rage, but with shalom and blessing.” 

At first, I questioned God about this (“Lord, did you see what this guy did to me?”) but I took another deep breath and prayed a blessing for that driver. Almost immediately my rage was gone and my perspective was changed. I spent the next 2 minutes praying for a person I didn’t know; perhaps it was a person who most likely needed someone to pray for him.

It was a small moment. It was an everyday moment. But as I invited Jesus into that, it became a holy moment and a transformative moment. Indeed, when Jesus is involved our “ordinary” quickly becomes “extraordinary.” And it served as motivation to invite Jesus into more of my everyday ordinary moments; so much so that I want to grow to invite Jesus into all of my moments. That leads to a transformed and transforming life. That is Worship in the Everyday Ordinary!

There are other everyday ordinary moments we can invite Jesus into:

– As you begin to do a task at work

– While you are in a conversation with someone

– As worrisome things come to mind and start to make you feel anxious or fearful

– When something good happens (Jesus loves when we include Him in the celebration of something good – just ask the people at the Wedding Feast in Cana!)

– When we notice something small, but beautiful (a butterfly, a hummingbird, a glimpse at a mountain or a sunset)

So, if you are like me and tend to forget Jesus for large portions of the day, start inviting Him into your ordinary, everyday moments and see if He doesn’t do something extraordinary with it.

1. What helps you to remember Jesus throughout the day?

2. What in this blog resonates with you? What is a disconnect?

3. What are some other “everyday ordinary moments” that we can invite Jesus into?

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