People who are high all the time are normally considered addicts. Unless one happens to be the kind of person who’s naturally and invariably happy. If such is the case, they’re actually a Disney character. I wish I could say that the opposite is true as well- that humans whose daily existence is at a significant, steady, low ought to indulge in fewer depressants or perhaps they’re  Eeyore.

Life is more than a combination of mountain top and valley experiences. Sometimes, we just live somewhere in the middle. The alarm goes off at the same time Monday through Friday, we have the same conversations and do the same work each day and we look forward to a weekend that we undoubtedly waste and somehow miss so badly when Monday morning hits.

This is ordinary time.

The concept is new to me, but then again, so is the church calendar. I’ve been a Christian for nine years and I’m just now learning that there’s a basically agreed-upon order of events and seasons throughout the year. Furthermore, each has its own corresponding color! Pentecost is red. Easter is white, Lent is purple… all news to me. But ordinary time (tempus per annum) is green. We’re about to start the long season of ordinary time, which lasts until Advent.

The Church is starting a time where we acknowledge regular life, work and play. The fact that we have this tells me that believers don’t have to steadily strive for the next God-thing that ought to change us, our neighborhood and the world. We don’t have to be super-spiritual. At the same time, it points to a notion that God is with us when everything is normal and perhaps a little humdrum, too. We can count on Him to bless us and to comfort believers as we mourn, but he also does regular stuff with us, like work a nine-to-five job and go for sweaty jogs at mediocre speeds because our love handles are starting to freak us out a little more than they used to.

I’m grateful that life isn’t exclusively comprised of mountaintop experiences. Because I wouldn’t have time to read, play video games or nap. Nobody takes naps on a mountaintop, which is unfortunate, because nap time is its own little victory in my world.