Think Bigger of the Ordinary

Recently my husband and I visited the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky. This life-size version of Noah’s ark as described in Genesis 6 will inspire you to do as the website says-

Think Bigger-

About God . . . His plan . . . and your response to it!

I’ve done just that in the last few days since our visit. I was struck by the enormity of the assignment God gave Noah who is described this way in Genesis 6:8-9, 22.

“But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD . . . Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God . . . he did all that God commanded him.”

Without any power tools. With only three sons to help him. In an unbelieving and scoffing world!

Noah walked with God and obeyed all that God told him to do. The journey he embarked upon with God reminds me of the book by Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. No doubt this was a long journey of obedience for Noah and one that was not based on anything he had seen but instead on what he knew and had heard from God.

I’m struck by his great faith that prompted such a long obedience which is commended in Hebrews 11:7.

“By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”

I desire a faith like Noah’s . . . willing to be set apart . . . persevering over the course of the long obedience. I want to do something exceptional for God . . . something super-sized like Noah, so when this post came across my Instagram feed from Oswald Chambers, it got my attention.

I’m challenged by his subtle correction to my thinking and the point that follows in the caption:

“We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people- and this is not learned in five minutes.”

Genesis 7:6 tells us that Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters came upon the earth, so I’m left admiring his journey of long obedience. As I look back at the way he’s described in Genesis, it’s obvious that he had found the grace of God and lived in a right relationship with Him. Even though he was surrounded by a corrupt and depraved generation of people, he walked faithfully and obediently with God. Because he walked with God, we can assume that he had an ongoing intimacy with God.

This led to ark building. This is the faith that God commends!

Today I’m asking God to work out in me like he did in Noah a heart for the long obedience. Oh that I would be mindful to think bigger of the ordinary things of this life that God puts before me. Oh that I would seek a life that is holy and set apart among the ordinary people I encounter. Oh may I persevere as I walk with God this long road of obedience in the same direction.

It’s this long road that leads to bigger thinking and Ark Encounters!