Ordinary Days

December 1, 1955. By all accounts, an ordinary day. People went to work. They worried about feeding their families. Everyone was just trying to live their life as they did every day. Nothing special. But, on that day Rosa Parks decided not to obey a bus driver's order to give up her seat to a white man. That act of defiance became the symbolic beginning to the civil rights movement.

An ordinary day in 1632. People went to work. They worried about feeding their families. Everyone was just trying to live their life as they did every day. Nothing special. One ordinary day in that year, Galileo published "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems." Though warned by the Roman church, Galileo published this work which accepted Copernicus' premise that the Earth was NOT the center of the universe. Galileo was convicted of heresy and punished by the Inquisition. But, his work laid the foundations for scientific study and the scientific method.

October 31, 1517. By all accounts, an ordinary day. People went to work. They worried about feeding their families. Everyone was just trying to live their life as they did every day. Nothing special. But, on that day, Martin Luther decided that the church had gone too far. He felt they had perverted the gospel for money. So, on that day, he nailed 95 theses for public notice on the door of the church in Wittenberg. That act of conscience became the symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

Walt Pavlo joined communications giant MCI in 1992. He went to work. He was worried about feeding his family. He was just trying to live his life every day. Struggling to reach the performance objectives—on an ordinary day—he was advised by a colleague to hide the debts of some of his worst–performing customers to maintain an exceptional productivity record. Pavlo was soon in the middle of a money-laundering operation that resulted in $6 million in deposits to a Grand Cayman bank account. Pavlo made a full admission and was sentenced to three years in prison.

I hear those stories and countless others and I wonder, "Did they know?" Did they know it was THAT day? That was the day they would be asked to take a stand. That was the day they would make a decision that would affect the rest of their life. Was there theme music? Did they hear the soundtrack of their life switch to a minor key? Did they jump to commercial right after the decision time presented itself? Was it during sweeps week?

I bet it wasn't.

Our lives are made up of ordinary days. We go to work. We worry about family. We just try to life our lives every day the best we can. And, every day we face the challenge of being like Jesus. When drivers cut us off. When bosses treat us rudely. When people we love are hurt.

I pray we never take a day off because we consider it "insignificant" or "ordinary." The call of Christ compels us to live extraordinary/loving/counter-cultural lives. The difference between living extraordinary lives every day and living ordinary lives of subtle compromise is the difference between Martin Luther and Walt Pavlo.