I read this question today in Run With the Horses by Eugene Peterson, “How can people who are conditioned to a life of distraction and indulgence be moved to live at their best, to be artists of the everyday, to plunge into life and not loiter on the fringe?”
Peterson elaborates on the story in Jeremiah 35. Jeremiah used the obedience and commitment of the Recabites to illustrate for Israel the need for attention to God’s laws. “Why will you not let God’s command develop in you a life of holy obedience instead of letting the crowd drag you into a sloppy indolence?”
To “simplify” seems to be a popular call in culture today. I can’t help but wonder if God is using that phrase to remind us that the “stuff” we’ve crowded our lives with has crowded him out.
I want to be an “artist of the everyday” … living fully in the present … in the fullness of God’s presence.
