The word "ordinary" shares the same linguistic root as "ordained." Although we live in a broken world, the fabric of ordinary life remains under God's ruling hand. Exercising our free will does not override God's controlling circumstances. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10, KJV). In our ordinary activities, we constantly employ the personal freedom and creativity through which God intends us to experience life's inherent value and joy. In our activities, we become cocreators with God in shaping our own lives and those of others—even, if only in a small way, history itself. Our ordinary or nonchurch activities may have far different emotional content than our church life, but they are the greater part of our entire life which is all "hidden in God."

The first place to find God, then, is in the ordinary. Likewise, the first place to look for God's will, his guidance, is the natural world. He confirms it, then, by his peace within us. If God has given us a talent for basketball, an enthusiasm for it, God means for us to enjoy playing it. In the superb movie Chariots of Fire, Olympic gold medal winner and future missionary to China Eric Liddell says, "When I run, I feel God's pleasure."

When we recognize how God meets us moment to moment, we begin to understand our lives as a continual encounter with God and celebration of God's presence. Gratitude for the ordinary goodness of life inspires a quiet thanksgiving: "In everything give thanks" (1 Thess. 5:18, NKJV). Ordinary things suffused with extraordinary grace.

I'm imagining my grandson, Jackson, sitting in the locker room after a future big game. His basketball uniform is drenched, his shoulders slumped with fatigue, his half-untied high-tops allowing his sprawled feet a breather. He's thinking about the between-the-legs crossover that allowed him to go to his left on a drive down the lane, followed by the no-look pass that he made to the team's center. The big man made the lay-up all alone, while two defenders crashed out of bounds after Jackson. My grandson is smiling at the sweet memory. "Thank you for basketball," he prays.

part 3 of an essay titled "What about Basketball?" published in Laity Connections, Winter 2003
<< read part 2

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