The Problem of Ordinary

Your life is ordinary. And you loathe the fact that it is.Becoming ordinary was never on your wish list. It neither filled your dreams nor fueled your imagination. If you’re anything like me, being ordinary might have even been your worst nightmare.Ordinary was the one thing you longed most to escape. You grew up in an ordinary family, lived in an ordinary town (not even big enough to be considered a city), and you attended an ordinary school. As a matter of fact, everything about your life seemed ordinary.You want people to notice you. To stand out, to make your mark in the world. You can’t do that if you are ordinary and blend in everywhere you go.Who would notice? After all, the very definition of ordinary is “with no special or distinctive features; normal, and commonplace.”Who notices ordinary? Nobody.Now as you think about it, ordinary defines your life. So much of your life is dull and ordinary. Mundane and meaningless! At least, that’s how you see it.Especially when you compare your ordinary life to other’s extraordinary lives — at least the lives you think they live by what you see on social media. By comparison, your life feels like a documentary filmed in black and white and stuck playing in s-l-o-w motion while everyone else’s lives are star-studded, action-packed, high-definition highlight reels.I’ve got news for you, and you might not like it. You can’t escape the ordinary. Ordinary is everywhere, and every life includes a certain amount of mundane moments.I remember the day that it dawned on me that even Jesus had many ‘mundane moments’ in his extraordinary life. Please don’t get me wrong, his life was certainly miraculous. But it was not nonstop miracles.We have a detailed account of his birth, a very short snippet when he was 12 years old, and a lot of details of his three years of public ministry beginning at about age 30. But what about those other years, the ones between birth and the Temple visit at age 12 and how about those 18 years from when he was 12 to when he was 30.We know he was a carpenter; did you ever stop to think that even he went through the tedious process of making furniture or building a barn? I am sure his work included plenty of mundane tasks of cutting, sawing, and sanding. I believe he had a mindset that transformed the mundane and infused it with meaning and purpose.[clickToTweet tweet="You cannot escape the #ordinary, but you can #transform it." quote="You cannot escape the ordinary, but you can transform it."]The mundane can become meaningful, even magical, especially, when you have the right mindset and outlook.It’s not so much what we do that determines whether or not a task is menial or mundane, but how much of ourselves we bring to the task and invest in it that is transformative.Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the three stonecutters in medieval times. Each had the same tasks, tools, and resources; they shared the same job description and worked on the same project. But their perceptions of their work were radically different as illustrated through their encounters with a visitor.The visitor was in awe at the massive project under construction. He could not tell what was being built but by the size of the worksite and the number of workers on the project he knew it was something big.He approached the first stonecutter, interrupted him and asked, “What are you doing?”A wee bit annoyed, he replied, “What does it look like I am doing? I am cutting stones for I am a stonecutter.”The visitor apologized for interrupting his work and continued walking around the site, still marveling at the edifice under construction.A few yards away, he encountered another mason and asked him the same question, “What are you doing?”The second worker was also perplexed by the visitor’s question. “Well, I am the best stonecutter in these parts, and I am meticulously working to build a wall.”“Thank you, I am sorry for my interruption. It is indeed a beautiful wall you are building.”The visitor walked on a few more yards where he approached the third mason. There was something different about this stonecutter. He was engrossed in his work, had a twinkle in his eye, and a spring to his step.The visitor decided to ask his question one more time. “Good sir, I hate to interrupt you, but may I ask what are you doing?”The stonecutter paused from his work, wiped the sweat from his brow, locked eyes with the visitor and said proudly, “Sir, I am building a great cathedral.”It was true that each worker had the same tasks, tools, and resources. But each of them perceived their work differently. Which stonecutter do you think found more joy from their labor?The third stonecutter knew the same secrets that Mother Teresa shared. She realized that “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” It’s not the size of the task that matters; it’s the amount of love you invest in it.[clickToTweet tweet="When you, “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love”, they cease being ordinary things." quote="When you, “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love”, they cease being ordinary things."]It’s not what you do that determines whether or not the task is ordinary. Rather, it’s the love and care, with which you do the mundane things of life, that transforms them into extraordinary.Your life is ordinary, not because it is full of mundane tasks; it is because you see those tasks as mundane. Find a way to infuse even the most mundane tasks with extraordinary love, care, and excellence. You will find both the work and the worker transformed as a result.