I Stopped Chasing Big Moments and Found Joy in the Small Ones | A conversation with Justin Baldwin

Finding the Sacred in the Ordinary: Why Christians Miss God’s Daily Gifts

How much joy are we missing as Christians by simply not being grateful?

This question hit me hard during my recent conversation with worship leader Justin Baldwin about his new song “The Sacred and the Ordinary.” The more we talked, the more I realized how often we pass by God’s blessings without even noticing them.

Think about it: God bathes us in countless gifts every day – a sip of morning coffee, laughter with a friend, the comfort of a bed at night – yet we often live in a perpetual state of ingratitude. We miss the sacred moments hidden within ordinary experiences.

The Sacred/Secular Divide Robs Us of Joy

One of the most damaging mindsets in modern Christianity is what theologians call the “sacred/secular divide” – the notion that church, Bible study, and prayer are “spiritual” activities, while work, leisure, and daily routines are merely “secular.”

This division isn’t biblical. Scripture presents a unified view where God permeates all aspects of life. When we compartmentalize our existence into sacred and secular categories, we rob ourselves of experiencing God’s presence in countless everyday moments.

Justin shared how this realization transformed his perspective: “It was kind of like a paradigm shift for me… I used to think, ‘I can’t wait to get out of this earth,’ but it was such a slow realization. I’m like, that doesn’t make sense.”

New Creation Changes Everything

Understanding the biblical vision of New Creation – that God plans to restore and renew this world rather than destroy it – changes how we experience today. If my coffee cup, friendships, and daily work have continuity with the eternal kingdom, they take on profound significance now.

As N.T. Wright puts it, “Despite the tendency of some parts of the emerging church to marginalize space, time and matter… I remain convinced that the way forward is to rediscover a true eschatology.”

If we believe that God will one day unite heaven and earth, then the things we do now – creating beauty, showing kindness, cultivating relationships – are acts of resistance against chaos, previews of the kingdom to come.

Finding Gratitude in Everyday Life

Justin’s song beautifully captures this theology in lyrics like “I’m embracing tiny pleasures, like the setting of the sun, the laughter of a friend and my spouse’s tender touch.”

How might our lives change if we intentionally cultivated gratitude for the ordinary? What if we asked questions like:

• What would this moment be like if I didn’t have sight?
• What would this moment be like if I didn’t have a home?
• What’s something in this room I’ve never noticed before?

These simple reflections can transform our experience, breaking us out of the numbness that characterizes so much of modern life.

A Challenge: Notice What You’ve Been Missing

I want to challenge you to spend one day intentionally practicing gratitude for ordinary things that you normally overlook. Write them down. Thank God specifically for them.

This isn’t just a nice spiritual exercise – it’s a radical act of resistance against the powers that would have us living distracted, ungrateful lives. It’s a declaration that the kingdom of God is breaking into our world here and now.

As Justin’s song reminds us: “The sacred and the ordinary, the life that’s in between, the eternal and the temporary, the things others don’t see.”

Don’t miss the miracles hiding in plain sight today.