Have you ever read or thought of something one way for so long that it seems like the world is flipped upside down when you look at it with a new understanding? I can’t imagine I’m the only one to have ever done this. And maybe my latest experience isn’t quite that earth shattering, but it really helped me to realize I may look at a lot of things from the wrong perspective. Come with me as I started my average midnight study session.

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I am standing in the kitchen, washing dishes, working on the evidence that my family ate something in the last four days – I do okay, sometimes, keeping up with the filling and emptying of the dishwashing machine (Bless Mr Average for helping) but the dishes that require a “human-washing machine” seem to pile up. Dirty dishes are evidence of blessings right? Right!- and again it’s the end of the day and I haven’t made time for my scripture study. So I open the app on my phone, sync it to a bluetooth speaker, because if it’s headphones they WILL fall in the water, and listen away as I scrub dried broccoli off pans.

The passage I’m listening to, I’ve read and heard many times before. It’s about a man, who, while on an average day of finding food, his mind is caught up in greater things. He kneels and pleads for forgiveness from the Lord, he prays all day and all night for redemption.

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I have always assumed that in this man’s life there was some grievous sin committed, or major act of obedience omitted, that it required such fervent and prolonged prayer. I had wondered “what in the world could he have done?!” As this man cries unto his Maker in mighty prayer, a voice comes to him and says, “thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed.” As I listened this time, a new thought came to mind: Perhaps this man was simply leading an average life. Perhaps he didn’t do anything catastrophically bad or wrong and was in fact a wonderful man, blessing the lives of his family and friends with his efforts. But this day he woke up and realized there is more for him to do. The Lord had more in store. The Lord was ready and waiting to increase his reach, his goodness, his love, his load, and his blessings. The Lord goes on and classifies this man with prophets who lived before him and gives the same promise of the fulfillment of his requests because of his great faith. And all of a sudden this is not a story of redemption, but a story of an ordinary man, on his way to becoming extraordinary. (Read more of this story here)

I know in my life I have moments when I realize there is so much more the Lord has in store for me. He has a broader vision than what I can see. I live such an average life that sometimes it’s easy to become comfortable as the average, to excuse my lack of effort, lack of motivation, lack of accomplishment of my real and imagined to-do list, because there is nothing extraordinary waiting for me. Now, if I knew there was some incredible outcome on the other side of that to-do list, I’m sure it would be done! But for now, it’s just the everyday, we wear clothes so they must be washed and put away, mundane tasks that loom before me. But tonight I realized that it is in the mundane, in the scrubbing of the broccoli, or eggs (which I also scrubbed tonight), or whatever it is that is stuck to your pans, that the Lord reaches out and reminds us He has extraordinary things in store. He has and will continue to increase our reach, our goodness, our love, yes, our load, but also our blessings. We are equal to the great ones in His eyes, and by crying to Him mightily we will be made whole and able to accomplish the extraordinary!

Do you get bogged down in your own literal or figurative piles of dirty dishes? Have you felt those nudges of greatness? I’d love to hear from you!

Image 1 photo credit: 06-24-09 Dov Harrington at flickr.com; License information;

Image 2 credit: Enos Praying, Gospel Art Book, (2008), 72

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