The Refining Day 9: Finding God in the Ordinary
It’s still winter in Chicago, and I am really starting to feel the effects of the lack of sunlight and harsh winter air. Sometimes I really question why I live here. I mean, I voluntarily live in a climate where the very air we are supposed to breathe hurts my face. Insanity!
All this to say: I have the winter blues.
As someone who already struggles with clinical depression, this can be a really difficult time of the year. Because it is so cold, it feels like not only the birds go into hibernation, but people as well. Social gatherings and events slow down, and the world around me takes a bit of a pause. The skies are gray, and the trees stand tall and bare. Everything around me just feels…dull.
It can be hard to really sense God’s presence when all seems so dark (literally and figuratively) around you.
To combat these feelings of seasonal depression, I’ve been striving to find God in the ordinary, mundane parts of my day.
When thinking of finding God in the ordinary, I always return to St. José Maria Escriva, who says:
Let me stress this point: it is in the simplicity of your ordinary work, in the monotonous details of each day, that you have to find the secret, which is hidden from so many, of something great and new: Love.”
and
“Your ordinary contact with God takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affections are. There you have your daily encounter with Christ. It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanctify ourselves, serving God and all mankind.”
St. José Maria saw every day, every moment, and every task, no matter how mundane and monotonous, as a way to encounter God and love those around us, allowing God to sanctify us in the process. Not one moment needs to be wasted.
On the train, at the office, on my walk to work, I encounter people who need my prayers and a smile. Every little task I do, no matter how meaningless it seems, can be offered as a sacrifice for those I love who are struggling.
I started saying a Hail Mary for all those on the train with me as a small way to silently love those I encounter, for each person around me is a beloved, treasure of God in which we encounter Him. I have started offering up the tasks I do at work that can feel frustrating or monotonous for someone specific I know that is suffering.
All around me, even in the most boring parts of my day, is a way to encounter God. Even in the long, dark, dreary months of the cold winter marked by so much death, God is living. He is active and present. It may feel like the world is at a pause, but God is always moving. In our lives, in our hearts, and in those around us.
God is there, in the everyday, waiting to meet us. Will you meet him there?