Matt Norman
Field Personnel in Barcelona, Spain
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. – Romans 12:1-2 (The Message)
A Blessing for Everyday Life
inspired by Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)
May you wake each morning
not with haste,
but with holy attention…
to the breath in your lungs,
the light stretching across your walls,
the soft ache or quiet joy that reminds you
that you are alive, and you are loved.
May your coffee, your routine,
your conversations and calendar
become altars of offering…
not perfect, or polished,
but placed freely before God
who delights in your ordinary.
May you slow down enough
to truly listen
to the rustle of leaves,
or horns from the street,
the tone behind the words,
the still small voice
nudging you toward love.
May your eyes
be trained by grace
to see wonder again:
the sacred stitched
into sidewalks and dishes,
emails and errands,
the Divine hidden in plain sight.
When the world tells you to speed up,
consume more,
dislike,
give up,
fit in and blend,
may you dare to fix your gaze
on the God who beckons you toward
relationship and transformation.
And in your everyday life,
may you hear how God
whispers your name,
with deep gladness.
And may you respond
not later, not someday,
but now,
in the quiet trust
that this life,
just as it is,
is where holiness begins.
Amen.