Doing Common Things in Uncommon Ways

Ah, vacation, a time to wander and ponder. My family and I are in Chicago for a few days and are enjoying the areas museums and attractions. Yesterday, we spent 5-6 wandering around the Field Museum of Chicago. What a place. What really caught my attention was an exhibit about George Washington Carver. A former slave who over came a variety of barriers to make a great impact in the world in the areas of science and humanity in general. In the museum store was a t-shirt which either a quote or summary of Carver’s beliefs. The shirt read “When you do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.” A simple thought, but quite profound.

As Christ followers, this is the attitude we need to have. We should be doing the common things in life, loving, serving, respecting, etc in such uncommon ways that the world pays attention. This attention should not be about you and me, rather we should then direct it to the glorify God. This line of thought brings me back to a discussion I was a part of a few weeks back with a young man who is part of a group of offenders I (and 5 others) are working with at a state prison. The assignment was given to study a passage about the branch and vine and barring fruit. He made the statement the even non-Christians do good things. The point that was made to help understand this was where is the attention that is gain directed, at ones self or back to the Creator? Then there is the idea of “uncommon” way.

In his book The Faith, Chuck Colson was talking about this very things. He gave two example of doing common things in uncommon ways (and the world did notice). He first described and incident that happened in an Amish community in which a number of school age girls were killed by a troubled man. This community not only forgave but reached out the killers family to support them as well. A common thing done in an uncommon way. The second example were a group of Christians who cared for plague victims in ancient times. Giving of themselves to serve others. Colson concludes the chapter with these stories in this way:

The early Christians who treated plague victims certainly weren’t embracing the pagan culture. Nor were they trying to make Christianity more relevant and win over the hearts of an empire; they were simply carrying out the truth of their faith — that every person is made in the image of God and therefore possess dignity.Again, doing common things in uncommon ways.

What common things do you do, that you can do in uncommon ways to bring glory to God?