Stuck in Ordinary

Have you ever felt like you were repeating the same thing over and over again?  Does your life ever feel as if you are stuck in the "Groundhog Day" movie, where the man relives the same day over and over again?  I think many of us can relate to this monotonous reliving of the same routine, day in and day out.  I work in a Special Needs classroom.  I don't feel like I am reliving the same day over and over again...I actually AM living the same day over and over again! 


We teach the kids how to add, tell time and even how to say simple phrases such as "girl scouts" instead of "scout girls".  When we arrive at school the following day....we hear about how "scout girls" went and then listen to them count without the number 6.  Do you ever feel as if your following a path that will never lead to where you wanted to go?


I realized today that God maybe feels the same way about me.  He tries to teach me how to follow Him, to trust Him and how to have joy in the midst of an ordinary day.  I listen and I am doing so good...until I wake up the next day.  I seem to forget so soon that God can be in the middle of my ordinary.  God can be in the routine.  God wants to use us when we are stuck in our real life "Groundhog Day"....but how can He use us if we forget how to follow?  How do we make the right choices if we choose not to trust?  How do we have joy when we refuse to believe?


The verse at the top of my blog is Romans 15:3: " May the God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace as you Believe in Him."  I think many times I don't want to believe.  I think God has left me in the middle of ordinary and gone ahead to show the perfect life to someone else.  When I look at all of the ordinary and difficult things in front of me, I forget.  I forget to trust...I forget to believe...that God is there.  He is in the middle of my ordinary, difficult day.  He is ready to fill me with all joy if only I would believe that He could give me joy in the midst of my perfectly not perfect day.


It's funny, because the rest of this verse tells me what God would do with me if I just believed He could.  The rest of the verse reads, "so that you may overflow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."   God doesn't give us joy and peace so that we will have a fun day at work.  He gives this to us...so that we may overflow with Hope!  What does overflow mean?  It means that something runs over...and out...onto all that is around.  Our hope is meant to flow out of us...onto all who are around.  The verse tells us that God's Spirit will give us the power...the power to share our hope in the middle of an ordinary day....all we have to do is, "Believe in Him". 


So, tomorrow I will start again...not only the same routine..again and again..but what God has been trying to teach me...again and again.  To believe in Him...that He is with me when I don't see Him.  To believe I can have joy and peace smack dab in the middle of my ordinary....and to overflow with hope all over those around me!