Extraordinary Moments in Ordinary Days

“One day, Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the time of prayer…” —Acts 3.1

There could not have been a more ordinary moment in their lives. This very unimpressive moment happened right on the heels of the very impressive event of Pentecost, where we read in Acts 2 that 3,000 people were baptized in a day! In the days and weeks that followed that extraordinary moment, the disciples committed to reading Scripture, eating together, sharing resources, and meeting together daily for prayer in the temple courts. In Acts 3, Peter and John were just going about their daily routine. 

But on this particular day, they saw something—or rather someone—they had not noticed before: a man who was paraplegic set out every day to beg from those going into the temple to pray. Remember, this is what Peter, John, and the rest of the disciples do every day. So it’s possible, even likely, that they had walked right by this man dozens of times before.

But something different happened on this day.

On this day, they noticed him.

Acts 3:4 says Peter and John “looked right at him,” or you might say that “they locked eyes with him.” They noticed him, and that simple act of noticing this man in the midst of the ordinary routine of their lives led to an extraordinary moment that brought glory to God, healing to the man, and courage to the disciples.  

Pentecost concludes the festival season of the church calendar. It is the perfect crescendo to the six-month season of festivals, starting with Advent, then Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Ascension, and Pentecost. All in six months! Now we enter the wholly unimpressive, six-month season of Ordinary Time. Yet, as we see in Acts 3, the Spirit is at work in the ordinary.

In this season when ministry programs and school years end, cottages open, and vacations begin, let’s together practice the spiritual discipline of noticing. Noticing WHO is around us in the normal routines of our lives. Noticing WHERE the Spirit is moving where you work and where you walk, as much as where you worship. Noticing WHAT the Spirit may be doing in you and through you to bring the extraordinary power of God into the ordinary moments of our days. 

Scott Stark is Resonate Global Mission’s Regional Mission Leader for the Great Lakes Region.