The Longest season of the Christian Calendar Year is what some call Ordinary Time. This part of Ordinary Time begins on the Monday following Pentecost and continues through Saturday afternoon before the first Sunday of Advent some five to six months later, always including the entire months of July, August, September and October. This year it also encompasses the latter part of May, all of June and most of November.
Without the celebrations of the grand feasts, festivals, and holidays like Christmas and Easter, this can seem like a drab time…an ordinary time; but let me offer to you that it does not have to be ordinary.
Can you reflect back to when you were a child and you lie in bed on December 24 waiting for December 25 so that you could break the mystery of what you may have been receiving? Can you remember a time in which you were waiting anxiously for a special trip/vacation or a special visit from a family member of friend? Can you remember the anticipation you felt as the last day of school approached, and sometimes that same anticipation when the first day of school approached? This is the mindset that we should approach Ordinary Time with….the anticipation of what God has planned for us.
I am reminded of one of my favorite scriptures found in 1 Corinthians 2 (The Message version):
No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—What God has arranged for those who love God. But you’ve seen and heard it because God by the Spirit has brought it all out into the open before you. The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the deep things of God, and brings out what God planned all along. Who ever knows what you’re thinking and planning except you yourself? The same with God—except that God not only knows what God’s thinking, but God lets us in on it. God offers a full report on the gifts of life and salvation that God is giving us. We don’t have to rely on the world’s guesses and opinions. We didn’t learn this by reading books or going to school; we learned it from God, who taught us person-to-person through Jesus, and we’re passing it on to you in the same firsthand, personal way. The unspiritual self, just as it is by nature, can’t receive the gifts of God’s Spirit. There’s no capacity for them. They seem like so much silliness. Spirit can be known only by spirit—God’s Spirit and our spirits in open communion. Spiritually alive, we have access to everything God’s Spirit is doing, and can’t be judged by unspiritual critics. Isaiah’s question, “Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what God is doing?” has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit.
We can’t imagine what God has in store for us, but I believe that whatever it is, it is GOOD!
In this Ordinary Time, I challenge you to nurture your relationship with Christ, and become intimately acquainted with God’s Spirit so that you may be able to access the secret things of God……there is nothing ordinary about our God, there is nothing ordinary about you, but through Christ, we are assured of an extraordinary life!