“The whole earth is full of God’s glory.” ~Isaiah 6:3
Have you ever felt God’s presence while doing something completely ordinary, like folding laundry, washing dishes, or driving to work?
God doesn’t always show up in a burning bush, a cloud or a pillar of fire. Sometimes, God shows up in an ordinary everyday moment. I was reminded of this while facilitating our Centering Prayer group this morning at Wisdom Tree Collective.
This week, our community continued its exploration of Ignatian spirituality. For simplicity’s sake, Ignatian spirituality is a way of reading scripture by visualizing ourselves in the story. This week I introduced the theme: Encountering Grace in the Ordinary.
We gathered around Luke 5:1–11, the story of Jesus calling his first disciples. It’s a familiar passage, but one person in our group said, “I love that Jesus shows up when they’re washing their nets.” That simple observation opened something within me. Yes! Exactly!
Jesus doesn’t show up in a temple or a mountaintop. He arrives while the fishermen are cleaning their nets. They are tired, discouraged, and waist-deep in their mundane tasks.
Imagine God showing up while you’re changing a diaper. Taking out the trash. Scrubbing a pan with crusted oatmeal from three breakfasts ago. Doing the laundry. You get the idea.
Ignatian spirituality invites us to believe that God does just that. Not only in the quiet of prayer or the beauty of nature, but in the mess, the repetition, the overlooked corners of our lives.
Jesus steps into Simon’s boat not to escape the crowd, but to teach from it. And then, he invites Simon to go even deeper. “Put out into deep water,” he says. And Simon, weary from a fruitless night, responds with reluctant trust: “Because you say so, I will.”
What follows is abundance. Nets breaking. Boats sinking. Awe and fear and a powerful calling.
Grace doesn’t wait for us to be ready. It shows up in the boat, in the kitchen, in the carpool line. It whispers, “Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will fish for people.”
- Where do I feel called from the familiar into deeper waters?
- What keeps me anchored in my daily routines, and what might be asking to shift?
Luke 5:1-11 NIV – Jesus Calls His First Disciples – One – Bible Gateway
A newsletter by Katie Rea.
Leave a comment