The Ordinary Life

THE ORDINARY LIFE
The Spoken Word
August 30, 2026
By: Derrick Porter


WE OFTEN ADMIRE people who have accomplished extraordinary things. It’s easy to look at their achievements or triumphs and marvel at the extraordinary lives they seem to live. But upon closer examination, we find—as Charles Spurgeon once observed—that “the grandest results [come] by the use of ordinary means, by ordinary persons … in … ordinary [ways.]”¹

Most of us don’t want to be merely “ordinary.” Yet it’s impossible to become extraordinary without first being ordinary. Even the word extraordinary is built upon the word ordinary. Simply put, the extraordinary starts with the ordinary.

This is true in every walk of life. Day by day, we all live ordinary lives. We awake, prepare for the day, go to school or work, care for children and homes, eat, rest, play, prepare for bed, sleep—and then do it all again, and again, and again. When we climb a mountain, we take one step at a time, focused on the path before us, rarely noticing that with each step we are gaining elevation.

It’s the same with life. There come moments when we pause, turn, and look back. Suddenly we see how far we’ve come and what we have accomplished. The extraordinary beauty of the ordinary climb was there all along—we simply didn’t notice it. What once seemed ordinary was, in fact, extraordinary.

In an age of endless comparisons, it’s easy to assume that God is found only in life’s extraordinary moments. But the scriptures teach otherwise. Often, God meets us in the ordinary.

Samuel, asleep near the prophet Eli, was awakened by the voice of God.² Naaman, seeking to be healed of leprosy, was simply told, “go and wash.”³ Elijah found the Lord’s presence not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in “a still small voice.”⁴ Sacred moments often come in the midst of ordinary life. God is found in the ordinary.

So if today feels ordinary, take heart. It’s felt that way for all who have gone before us. As we make our daily climb, let us take time to pause, to turn, and to look at the valley below. From that higher vantage point, we may discover that with God as our guide, what once seemed a very ordinary path has actually been extraordinary all along.

1. Charles H. Spurgeon, Notable Quotes of Charles H. Spurgeon, Part 4, volume 55, sermon #3171, 94, spurgeongems.org/quotes4.pdf.
2. See 1 Samuel 3.
3. 2 Kings 5:10.
4. 1 Kings 19:11–12.