In the Ordinary (Spontaneous) [Bethel Music and Jenn Johnson ft. Michaela Gentile]
In the Ordinary (Spontaneous)
Bethel Music, Jenn Johnson, and Michaela Gentile collaborate in this week’s Song of the Week, In the Ordinary (Spontaneous).
We get excited about the special occasions in our lives: birthdays, holidays, parties, dinner dates. But what about the ordinary occasions in our lives? We spend most of our lives sleeping, eating, cleaning, going to work, caring for our families, going to school. In the Ordinary (Spontaneous) reminds us that even the “ordinary” in our lives is special and can help us connect with God.
The song relates to chapter 12, verses 1-2 of a book in The Bible called Romans (see below):
“12 1-2 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.”
God is with us even in our “ordinary” lives. Life is a gift from God — an empowerment to do the good works that he planned for us before we were born. These “good works” use our gifts, talents, caregiving, and work not only to benefit ourselves, but also others, even humanity.
Living a life of good works is an act of service. We serve others while they do the same for us in doing their good works. In serving others in loving ways, we also serve God. We receive the gift of life, and when we live lives for good, we share/offer the gift back to the giver. Expressing gratitude to God for the gift of life is called praise and worship. In worship, we realize that even during our struggles, the giver of the gift of life is worthy (deserving) of our gratitude.
We get to choose how we use the gift of life. We can choose to use it for good or for evil — a life that is selfish and unloving. When we live our lives for the good in intentional gratitude to God, The Bible refers to this as a “living sacrifice”. As living sacrifices, we put an effort into sacrificing (giving up) our evil ways and desires for God’s good—a life based in love for others and even ourselves.
Enjoy In the Ordinary (Spontaneous) and stay blessed.