If there’s one word that sums up the lives of many in our congregations, it just might be “bored.” Even those of us who want to make a great impact for God often find that our lives are filled with the seemingly mundane—doing laundry, taking care of children, paying bills. Our lives are boring.
That’s where Michael Kelley’s new book comes in: Boring: Finding and Extraordinary God in an Ordinary Life. Our lives don’t have to be boring. But the cure for our boredom isn’t found in quitting our jobs and chasing that dream of becoming a basketball star or professional clown (You know who you are.). No, our lives don’t have to be boring because we follow a God who is never boring.
I had the chance to catch up with Michael recently and ask him a few questions about Boring:
J.D. Greear: It takes some guts to publish a book with the title Boring. Can you give us a quick synopsis? What is Boring all about, and who is it for?
Michael Kelley: It’s autobiographical. Seriously. And what’s true for me is true for most other people – we spend 90% of our lives doing the stuff of life. We live in a culture that is constantly looking toward the bigger, the better, and the more exciting. Because we are, any time we bump up an area of life that’s common we treat it as something to either grit our teeth and just get through, or to escape from. In light of that, the main idea of Boring is simple, but elusive I think: There is no such thing as ordinary when we follow an extraordinary God.
This book is for the stay-at-home mom and the office job dad. It’s for the regular church member and the ordinary taxpayer. It’s for the person who has ever looked at the seemingly mundane details of life and wondered if they are really doing anything that’s worthwhile. I hope the book will help us see that meaning is found not outside of these ordinary areas of life but right in the middle of what we think of as boring.
J.D. Greear: That’s interesting: “There is no such thing as ordinary when we follow an extraordinary God.” What does that mean for the people in our churches who are living seemingly ordinary lives?
Michael Kelley: It means broadly that ordinary doesn’t equate to bad or wrong. We tend to equate significance with big and grand, but time and time again throughout Scripture we see God invading the normal and transforming it by His presence. When He does, we aren’t called out of the normal – we don’t necessarily need to leave our jobs, our families, or routines – we are called to see the purposes and presence of God inside the normal. So my hope for the ordinary people is that they find not only permission but divine advocacy of the “ordinary.”
J.D. Greear: A large emphasis in your book is encouraging readers to see God’s extraordinary activity in their ordinary, everyday lives. How does this fit with more radical displays of devotion for God? Should we encourage one over the other?
Michael Kelley: One of the illustrations I use in the book is that of writing a check. When we become a Christian, we essentially write a “blank check” over to Jesus. We give over everything – money, time, career, dreams – everything. But it seems to me that Jesus cashes that check a little at a time. It’s 10 cents here when you have to decide to get up early and read the Bible. It’s a quarter there when you choose to spend time praying with your kids. More times than not, those decisions add up and there comes a point when Jesus cashes in something that might seem bigger. But I believe that when that point comes and we’ve been faithful up to then, the bigger decision probably won’t feel that big any more. It’s just the next decision in a long line of faithfulness.
In other words, the bigger more life-altering decisions fit squarely beside the seemingly smaller ones. I do believe, though, that the guts of discipleship and character formation are found inside the small rather than the big. It’s certainly more exciting to emphasize the bigger decision over the smaller one, but one of the dangers in doing so is that we might be publicly committed but privately unfaithful because most of these ordinary decisions are lived out not in front of others but privately – behind the scenes with a checkbook, a spouse, or a child, where no one really ever sees.
J.D. Greear: What are some tangible ways that following an extraordinary God can change our view of work, family, and money?
Michael Kelley: I think this questions hinges on the way we see these aspects of life. Most of us live with an unintentional separation of the sacred and the secular. We think of some parts of our lives as more holy than others, and the others are just everyday things.
God doesn’t have that delineation. So one tangible way our perspective might change is the way we plan our schedule. We might look at the things that have to be done not as drudgery but as opportunity to embrace the work of God. The lunch isn’t just a lunch; it’s an opportunity to connect with a person made in the image of God. Disciplining your kids isn’t just about having order in the home; it’s the way by which children are infused with gospel-laden truth that launches them into the world. Writing a check isn’t just about paying a bill; it’s a window into what you love and what you believe.
J.D. Greear: In chapter 11 you said something that stuck out to me: “We are so bent on the exciting, that we might miss the small choices of faithfulness right in front of our eyes. There are many distractions, but the calling is clear. Do the next right thing.” How is this different from the way a lot of people view the will or calling of God?
Michael Kelley: Most of us confine the will of God to a few big decisions related to marriage, career, and city where we live. We treat God like a magic 8-ball, just wanting from Him the answer to a few of the big questions we have. Most of those big issues are several decisions down the line, whereas the next decision we have to make is a smaller one. It’s to apologize to a friend. It’s to be patient with a child. It’s to give of your time and money. That’s the next right thing. But often we become so fixated on those life-changing decisions, that we become paralyzed, waiting for God to write a mystical answer for us in the clouds.
God no doubt cares about those issues, but we shouldn’t wait to walk in His will until we know the answer. We can do the next right thing, and as we keep doing it, more times than not it will become clear how God wants us to continue to walk.
J.D. Greear: You mentioned that this is an issue borne out of personal experience. What circumstances brought about the writing of this book? What do you hope it will accomplish?
Michael Kelley: When I began writing the book, I did so with a few very specific people in mind. These are people who raise their families in godly ways, are faithful church members, and work in secular fields where they have chances to share the gospel regularly. But these are also people who have, in my conversations with them, regularly asked the question of whether or not they are really doing anything significant with their lives. So my primary prayer, as people read, is that they would look with fresh eyes on their regular schedule – the way they speak to others, the way they parent their children, the way they relate to their spouse, the way they spend money and the way they go to church – that they would see these normal occurrences ripe with meaning because of the presence of a God who makes the ordinary into something extraordinary.
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