Aunt Mary and Ordinary Means
“Discipleship is like waking up to remember that we are alive in Christ over and over and over again a hundred times a day, until the day when we no longer need to be reminded that we are in Christ forever because we can see Him.”
When the phone rang in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon I snarled. It had been a wild “day off”. Housecleaning, nagging my teens to study for finals, grocery shopping, more nagging, answering emails, nag. My to-do list was barely touched and I was feeling threadbare. With only fifteen minutes before I needed to pick up the younger kids from school I was flying around the kitchen in the vain hope of getting some dinner prep accomplished. I was about to let the phone go to voicemail but the out of town area code made me curious. “Hello?”
A frail elderly voice answered. “Hello Sheena, this is Aunt Mary. You might not remember me.” As I continued to bustle around the kitchen I answered, “Of course I remember you, Aunt Mary.” I had only seen my husband’s aunt three times in our 19 years of marriage but her loveliness had made an impression on me. She and her husband had spent years as missionaries in Italy and I had heard stories of her beautiful hospitality and legendary spaghetti sauce. The phone call was suddenly a happy surprise.
“Sheena I have been praying for you and your family. I get updates from Randy (my father-in-law) but he is out of town and I wanted to know how you all are.” End of multi-tasking. I stopped chopping veggies for dinner and leaned over my counter to better focus. This woman who I had seen only three times in my life prayed for my family. Regularly. Before she continued I was feeling incredibly humbled.
Once all her questions were answered about the status of our family she said, in a voice that was getting more shaky and emotional by the moment, “Sheena, parenting is hard.” I was undone. The kitchen counter started to blur as the tears started to roll. It was a simple and obvious statement but this was coming from someone who barely knew me. Someone who prayed for me. Someone who had survived the death of an adult child. The mother of a prodigal. I knew with every self-absorbed fibre of my body that I had to listen hard. “All the work you are doing might not seem to be paying off but if you continue faithfully, by God’s grace, you will be greatly rewarded. Can I give you a verse that I think is important?”
“Yes. I’m getting a pen.” And wiping my eyes and blinking hard so I can see what I’m about to write.
The mature, sage voice continued slow and strong. “It is from Isaiah 28 verse 10 and it says ‘For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.’ You see it doesn’t happen all at once but slowly as you teach them and speak God’s word to them. The Lord will bless your efforts.”
It has been several months since that conversation but it comes to mind regularly. After mulling it over one day I finally connected it to the underlying message of countless sermons from my pastor over the years. At it’s heart, it is the teaching of Ordinary Means; an old Christian doctrine stating that effective Christian growth hinges on three basic elements; the public reading and preaching of God’s Holy Word, the public administration of the sacraments, and prayer.
Over the centuries the church has tried to reinvent the wheel and come up with new revelation; five, seven, or ten step plans on how to become a powerful and effective Christian. We desperately and hungrily crave the next new thing to boost our shaky faith and doubting tendencies. However, I can testify that taking hold of these ordinary means by faith, knowing they are rooted and outlined in God’s Word, has shown more power and beauty than I could have hoped for.
But it’s little by little. It’s slow. It’s on your knees when you’d rather read a book. It’s asking people to pray with you when you feel ashamed and embarrassed. It’s taking your family to church when you feel like sleeping in. Precept upon precept. It’s staying up way past your bedtime when your teen is scared and confused and struggling with their faith. It’s taking the Lord’s Supper by faith and with a clear conscience. It’s knowing, loving, and talking about the words in your Bible. Line upon line. And it’s praying some more. Here a little, there a little.
Recently we had a bit of a blow-out with tempers raging among a few of our kids. I would rather ignore the correlation between family game night and horrible arguments. After all four of the kids stomped upstairs my husband and I stared at each other; adrenalized and breathing hard. Disappointment and exhaustion left us speechless. We could have crawled defeated into bed but instead my husband called the kids downstairs and brought out the Bible. He read. He taught. We talked. We prayed. And peace reigned. I know that not every embroilment ends so well. But when they do we are witnessing the extraordinary from something that appears quite ordinary.
The memory of this phone call continues to encourage me. I am humbled by the fact that our gracious Lord would prompt Aunt Mary to phone me with this specific message and that she was faithful to obey. Life is a big job. Parenting is monumental. We mustn’t become so overwhelmed that we do nothing. Press on, using all that we have access to, and bit by bit we will see God’s faithful work in our lives and the lives of those around us.
