S05E006, A Life More Ordinary, Endurance

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On this episode, we are looking at how we should view the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Endurance is your weekly spiritual workout, whether you think of yourself as a beginner, an intermediate, or advanced!

#GoDeeper

Steven begins this week’s GoDeeper by getting us to think of the extraordinary feats demonstrated during the 22 Commonwealth Games, compared to the ordinary feats that ordinary people like us achieve.

He then unpacks the passage of Scripture found in Luke 18:10-14, pointing out the differences between the two people praying in that passage. One was rather ordinary and humble, whilst the other thought himself extraordinary and was arrogant.

Steven reminds us that riches and fame, which are not ordinary, are not all that healthy for people.

He concludes that we shouldn’t strive to be extraordinary but should embrace the ordinary and mundane aspects of life.

You can read the GoDeeper transcript here.

#GoDo

For the final segment, Nathan asks Steven some questions about his GoDeeper:

1. It seems as though “ordinary” and “humble” go hand in hand. Would you agree?
2. From what you said, I would gather that ordinary life and ordinary activities are quite healthy. Does that sound correct?
3. I suppose we need to be content whether we are led to live an ordinary life or an extraordinary life. Would you say that’s right?
4. Would you say you live an ordinary life or an extraordinary life?

Watch this week’s episode to find out Steven’s answers to these questions.

Steven and Nathan

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Transcript

Nathan 0:23
Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Endurance, your weekly spiritual workout. I'm Nathan. So, this week's episode is entitled, A Life More Ordinary. And we're looking at the idea of being ordinary, and how being ordinary is not necessarily a bad thing. We don't need to be extraordinary. We don't need to be able to accomplish lots of amazing spectacular feats. We just need to do what God has called us to do in our different circumstances. So Steven is going to expand this topic momentarily, and hopefully, we'll all understand better, how to view being ordinary and how to go about our daily lives, the monotony of daily routine, better. Enjoy.

People are like trees, they need a long time to change. So be patient. #SpeakTruth.

#GoDeeper Transcript

Steven 1:24
So this is GoDeeper with me, Steven. Let's begin. We've just had the 22 Commonwealth Games, where 72 countries, about 5,000 athletes have come together and competed. And we've seen some extraordinary feat, well, I didn't really watch it. But there were apparently some extraordinary feats of people doing running, cycling, all kinds of things. And it was extraordinary what they did. I think I didn't watch. And just like the same in the Olympics, or anything, they do these amazing things that the rest of us who are just ordinary can't achieve. And I'll come back to that later.

We have some scriptures. Matthew 23, 11 says, The greatest among you will be your servant. That is kind of looking at the idea of ordinary. The greatest among you will be ordinary, kind of. And Luke 18, 11 to 14. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself. God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, greedy unrighteous adulterers, or even like this tax collector, I fast twice a week, I give a 10th of everything I get. But the tax collector standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven, kept striking his chest and saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner. Tell you this one went down to his house justified rather than the other. Because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. So the first bloke was, he saw himself as rather extraordinary, he was not humble, whereas the second person was quite ordinary and as a result was humble.

So I think there's a correlation between the two. When you're ordinary, there's a humility that comes with that. So people try to be extraordinary, but actually, with ordinary stuff is more humility, which is a good thing. Often, we think of fame and riches, it's often been said that what most people want is fame and riches. But with that comes a lack of humility. And there are drawbacks to that, it's been said a lot. It's not so good, to be extraordinary. To be ordinary in that sense is actually better. We should embrace the ordinary that we have in our lives, we should embrace that, just normal.

And it's the same in the faith actually, there's a lot of great exploits and feats that have been achieved by some of the men in the Bible. Characters, all I can think of is John Bunyan. He did some amazing things. And there's loads of names that just did amazing things for the Gospel, great things of faith. But the rest of us are quite ordinary. We haven't done anything like that. And that's not such a bad thing. We just need to do what God has called us to do. And God has often called us to be ordinary, it's not a bad thing. So, don't strive for the extraordinary. That's kind of the message I'm giving. Enjoy and be in the ordinary that God has given you.

Jo 4:35
So, let's pray. Andy's going to come on and show us how to pray. Excellent. What, what have you got there?

Andy 4:53
It's my world's Atlas.

Jo 4:55
Okay.

Andy 4:56
So I can pray for the world.

Jo 4:57
Okay.

Andy 4:57
You see, prayer is good,

Jo 4:58
Right. Okay, you're gonna shows how to do that then.

Andy 5:00
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I've gone I got me a atlas. And if you go to the letter A, I'm going to start here. So,

Jo 5:07
Yeah,

Andy 5:07
Please God, please bless Aben ra and Archan and Arborg.

Jo 5:13
What did you like about the story?

Dave the Dog 5:15
Bob.

Jo 5:16
Bob, you like Bob?

Dave the Dog 5:18
And the stick.

Jo 5:19
And the stick.

Dave the Dog 5:19
We like sticks.

Jo 5:20
You like the stick?

Dave the Dog 5:21
Me like sticks a lot I do.

Jo 5:22
Okay, well, we'll try and make sure there's some more stories with sticks in Dave, especially for you.

Nathan 5:32
Well, thank you very much, Steven. I think that was a very insightful talk on the topic of a life more ordinary.

Steven 5:38
Thank you.

Nathan 5:38
Good, so I have some questions for you, as usual. Are you ready?

Steven 5:43
As usual, I'm, no, I'm not ready.

Nathan 5:45
Splendid. So, first of all, it seems as though ordinary and humble go hand in hand. Would you agree?

Steven 5:54
Yeah, to a certain extent, I don't think. You can be extraordinary and still be humble, can't you?

Nathan 5:59
Yes.

Steven 6:00
So to an extent, yes. But not exclusively.

Nathan 6:04
But if you're, if you are living a relatively ordinary life, it's much easier to be humble.

Steven 6:08
Yes.

Nathan 6:10
Just like the man in that scripture you read.

Steven 6:14
Whereas if you have something, if you're a bit more extraordinary, it's harder to be humble.

Nathan 6:18
Yes. Okay. So from what you said I would gather that ordinary life and ordinary activities are quite healthy. Does that sound correct?

Steven 6:23
Yeah. The ordinary is something to be embraced. I think I said, yeah.

Nathan 6:33
Yeah. And it's good for us. We can't always be doing, engaging in extraordinary activities, otherwise, they would no longer be extraordinary.

Steven 6:41
No, exactly. Yeah.

Nathan 6:44
Okay, so I suppose we need to be content, whether we are led to live an ordinary life or an extraordinary life.

Steven 6:50
Yes, definitely. Definitely. Yeah.

Nathan 6:53
We need to follow God's leading wherever he takes us. And that is where we'll find fulfilment. That's where we will be content. If we just strive for the extraordinary for the fame for the glory, we won't be satisfied.

Steven 7:07
No.

Nathan 7:10
And finally, would you say you live a relatively ordinary life or an extraordinary life?

Steven 7:18
I would say it was ordinary. Yeah,

Nathan 7:20
Ordinary?

Steven 7:20
How about you?

Nathan 7:21
I know I'm fairly extraordinary. But

Steven 7:26
Yeah, you would say that, wouldn't you?

Nathan 7:28
Well, I mean, you know, as you say, you can be humble and extraordinary. So. Any way, we'll, we'll close it there. So, thank you very much for joining us. I hope you learned a great deal about the ordinary in life. And you will join us next week for our next episode of Endurance.

Jo 8:00
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