Have you ever received an annual holiday letter from an acquaintance that recounts the ordinary events of the past year? Has anyone told you about cleaning the carpet or taking out the trash? Not likely.

An online publication called the Journal Of Mundane Behavior says these routine events fill most of our time. The managing editor, a sociologist, says everyday life is valuable, since we spend nearly 60 percent of our lives doing things like commuting to work and shopping for groceries.

We don't often consider the apostle Paul's ordinary days, but he wrote, "In all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God" (2 Corinthians 6:4). "All things" included not only harsh persecution but also "needs, sleeplessness, purity, kindness, love" and other everyday experiences (vv.4-10).

Oswald Chambers said that we tend to lose our enthusiasm "when there is no vision, no uplift, but just the common round, the trivial task. The thing that tells in the long run for God and for men is the steady persevering work in the unseen, and the only way to keep the life uncrushed is to live looking to God" (My Utmost For His Highest, March 6).

So let's live today to the fullest for the Lord, because it's such an important, ordinary day.  — David C. McCasland