Sacred Ground Ministries

Is it just me or does anyone else hit a wall in the afternoon? In fact, sometimes it seems like my days are one big long afternoon strung together. My chore list at home is bottomless, and not in the good way like pasta. Speaking of pasta, my life also involves lots of cooking to feed hungry bellies.

Don’t get me wrong. I genuinely love and delight in my life. It’s what I’ve chosen and what has been graciously given to me. I’ve been shaped like a stubborn vine bending its own way by the Vinedresser Himself towards the practice of gratitude. Often I cling to gratitude as the remedy for many aches in my soul. But for now, I’m learning a different sort of lesson, again by the Teacher and also by the tool in His hands, life.

Before August was born, David and I went on a babymoon trip to Boston and Martha’s Vineyard. It was a beautiful trip, full of history and good food and salty air. My book I was reading at the time was called “Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life” by Tish Harrison Warren. As a side note, I highly recommend this book. She talks about her visit to a Monastic community that had a sign above the door that read:

“Everyone wants a revolution. No one wants to do the dishes.”

I remember reading that quote with my swollen belly thinking “Yes, how true…what a nice thought.”

Yes, how true it is for me and most likely for you. I’m not sure what type of revolution you’re looking for or have looked for in the past. For me, the type of revolution I envisioned looked something like productivity and achievement that left little time for doing things like dishes. The dishes of course being literal, yes, but also the unseen work.

The ordinary.

It has been a gift of Grace that I have become acquainted with the ordinary. I’ve gotten to experience the pleasure of what it means to live a quiet life. What this life requires, however, is endurance for the long, seemingly endless days. As I was doing my Bible reading recently, I came across a Scripture in Hebrews that was salve for my soul.

“For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may received what is promised.”

Hebrews 10:36

Yes, Lord, I do have need of endurance. How much I need for all of the nursing and soothing and tidying and cooking. How much I need that endurance for when my flesh is crying revolution but God has gifted me with dishes.