Over the summer, my husband Fred and I have been working through the course material from an organization in Canada (Empowering Ability) that helps families promote independent living for their adult family member with intellectual or developmental disabilities. One of their objectives is to help one’s family member to achieve “An Awesome Ordinary Life.” I love that phrase. Not just for people with disabilities, but for all of us. In the “Ooh! Ooh! Look at Me!” world of social media, it is so easy to lose sight of how extraordinary it is when an ordinary life is lived in faithful ways. Let me explain…
Last week, I attended a reception at a funeral home for a neighbor of mine. I always considered her a friend, not because I knew her deeply, but because she loved my kids so well. You see, Janice was the playground aide at our elementary school for over 20 years. My sons are 31 and 29 years old now. Both of my kids have “exceptionalities.” My oldest son was in the gifted education program and my youngest has Down syndrome. She helped their time on the playground every day to be a delightful experience. She engaged them. She was interested in them. They talked about her after school and at the dinner table. Janice even assisted them in smuggling home Avon products for me as Christmas gifts from the boys. Even years and years after my sons had moved on from our local elementary school, she remembered them by name and asked after them whenever I would see her in the grocery store. Much as Janice made my kids feel cared about, the universal reaction of parents across the community was the same. Their families also each felt uniquely cared for by her.
The day I found out that Janice had died, I was deeply moved. Reflecting on her life, it simply struck me how incredibly ordinary her job task was. Playground aide. How simple. How humble. Big deal…right? Yes, it was a big deal. Not because the job paid an inflated salary. Not because Janice was featured in the local news. Not because she won awards in her field. Janice was a household name around the dinner tables of Clay Township because she did ordinary work in extraordinary ways. She excelled at loving local kids. She did this faithfully, consistently, and cheerfully. I’m sure there were days when it was raining, or freezing cold, or blazing hot—and it wasn’t easy to head outside and herd hundreds of kids on the playground. However, Janice showed up day in and day out—for decades—not just as a warm body looking for an education system pension, but as a loving human being—fully present with individual children.
Photo credit: Oakville News on Unsplash.com.
Hudson Taylor once said, “A little thing is a little thing, but faithfulness in the little things is a great thing.” What “awesome ordinary” jobs has God called you to participate in today? It might be in the seemingly mundane tasks of parenting a child with disabilities. It might be in the “no one sees how much work this is” parts of leading a disability ministry at your local church. It is so easy in a media-saturated world to believe if we don’t have a “platform” our voice is not heard. Or if we don’t receive public praises our work does not matter. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Let’s live our lives today doing ordinary work in extraordinary ways, mindful of what Christ taught us in the Gospel of Matthew:
“Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don’t make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won’t be applauding.
When you do something for someone else, don’t call attention to yourself. You’ve seen them in action, I’m sure—‘play-actors’ I call them—treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that’s all they get. When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. Just do it—quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out. ”
Steph Hubach is the author of Same Lake, Different Boat: Coming Alongside People Touched by Disability—First Edition (2006), Updated and Revised Version (2020). In collaboration with Lancaster Bible College, Steph produced a Christian Education DVD series based on Same Lake, Different Boat, which is available on YouTube. She has served as a contributing author for the Ministry Essentials Bible, The Dignity and Sanctity of Every Human Life, and Amazing Gifts: Stories of Faith Disability and Inclusion. Steph’s writing has appeared in publications such as ByFaith magazine, Focus on the Family magazine, Covenant magazine, Breakpoint online magazine, and the enCourage blog. Steph currently serves as a Research Fellow in Disability Ministries and as a Visiting Instructor in Educational Ministries with Covenant Theological Seminary.
