Everyday God: The Spirit of the Ordinary

by Paula Gooder

The bestselling writer Paula Gooder continues her exploration of the Christian year, with its different seasons and moods, and the varying messages they convey. Here, she explores the longest period of the liturgical year, ordinary time - 33 weeks where no great dramas occur.

We live in a culture that revels in the special, the extraordinary, the new, the unusual. This can relegate ordinary life to a bland 'in between-ness' as we look for the next excitement or novelty. This is a tendency that affects the church as much as wider culture as it seeks new ways of doing the familiar old things and reinventing itself.

Yet, 'the ordinary' is the very essence of life. The point of special occasions is not to lift us out of humdrum existence but to embed us more powerfully in ordinary, day to day life. We need to learn how to live ordinary life in an extraordinary way. This book explores how to do this through reflections on 33 biblical texts reflecting on how God breaks into everyday life, transforming it into the most extraordinary existence possible.

Genres: Christian, Spirituality, Christianity

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 3, 2012

About the author

Paula Gooder is a speaker and writer on the Bible, particularly on the New Testament. She began her working life, teaching for twelve years in ministerial formation first at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford and then at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham. Following this she spent around eight years as a speaker and writer in biblical studies travelling the country and seeking to communicate the best of biblical scholarship in as accessible a way as possible, after that she spent six years working for the Bible Society as their Theologian in Residence and then for the Birmingham Diocese as their Director of Mission Learning and Development. She is currently the Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

Reviews

[Lexie Conyngham · Rating 5 out of 5]

With reference to ‘ordinary time’, those sections of the church year when we are neither celebrating nor working towards celebration, this is a book in praise of the ordinary and of the God who is with us as much, or even more, in the everyday as He is in tragedy or in grand worship. Gooder encourages us to learn to see God in the normal patterns of life, or in asides to that life, and having seen Him to hear what He is asking us to do. In the same way, she tells us that God is also happy with ordinary people – He does not need us to be extraordinary as He can do that for us, for His purpose. This is a very heartening book, written in an easy style, taking examples from the Bible and chatting over them in a familiar and friendly way.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up because this book was chosen for a church book study this month. It is the last of three of Paula Gooder's books on seasons of the church year. Paula Gooder is an Anglican New Testament scholar and theologian, who has started to make a name for herself the last few years. I've seen a few YouTube videos of her lectures and been impressed with her learning and her ability to present it in an accessible way. This book reinforces that impression.

In this book, Gooder looks at Ordinary time- that long stretch between Trinity Sunday and Advent (and a bit in Epiphany) where there is no major festival. That is a hard topic because most of the other church seasons have a feast either at the beginning or the end, so they tend to be times of waiting or celebration. Ordinary time is just everyday life, so it is neglected often. Yet, as Gooder talks about, it is an opportunity to look at 'normal' life, the time in between spiritual highs and lows, where we spend most of our time.

The structure of the book is based around the everyday and ordinary. Each chapter contains some opening commentary by Gooder, but is based on several scriptural passage to which Gooder attaches brief reflections. The reflections are topic and accessibly written. They are the result of considerable learning, but it is lightly carried, avoiding theological jargon, but achieving great clarity of thought. That is very difficult balance and Gooder manages it with an ease which one understands couldn't be easy, but looks it. That is the mark of masterful scholar and one excellent reason to read this book.

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to discussing it in our book club. Mind you, I'm pretty sympathetic to her project to look at everyday Christian living because I'm convince that is where I (and others, I think) is where I'll find God, instead of waiting for the great epiphanies which come much less often.

[gillian goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyday God

Our very ordinary life explained and expanded, so we recognise what we can do every day. In our ordinaryness we can reflect our love for everyone and find our own individual way of life rooted in the love of God.

[Ann Gemmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

So appreciate everything Paula Gooder writes. Used this book off and on devotionally. Wonderful reflections of how the Lord meets us in the mundane and daily to transform us and show forth His love and mercy both in and through our lives. She is a clear minded theologian with a pastoral heart.

[Fubzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good, lots of helpful thoughts on ordinary time - enough to inspire me to do a service on the subject, and the sections were short enough that they worked well for daily reading.

[Rhiannon Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Approachable and warm exploration of ordinary time, structured through discussions of biblical passages, and applicable to all of life.

[Kirsty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book i've read that Paula Gooder has written based around the church calendar (the others being about advent and the period between Easter and Pentecost) and this is my favourite. In fact, it is so good once I finished it, I started rereading it, which is very unusual for me.

The book takes ordinary time (that part of the church year that isn't advent, lent or Easter) as its theme. it has 33 Bible passages and reflections organised into 3 parts each with 2 chapters. These are: ordinary people (looking at what it means to see God in the everyday & people in the Bible who seem ordinary but who rose to the occasion when God asked), ordinary God (or seeing God using everyday things & how the kingdom is described in everyday terms) and living extraordinary lives (the call to be extraordinary and seeing God's glory ). The introduction is worth reading in its own right and is about God in the humdrum of our lives and not just exciting moments.

[D Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought I already had a good idea of God as a God of the ordinary.
But this book was very clear and enjoyable and made me see the significance of this a little better.

I heard Paula Gooder teach at Spring Harvest this year and she is able to give a very honest account of what the bible is saying and is confident enough to admit when we just don't know.

This was the first book of hers that I have read and I am happy to say I will be looking for more.

[Matt Moser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first devotional book I've read in several years. It is deceptively simple. Though the language and the style is easy and clear, Paula had written a profound meditation on ordinariness that deepens and enriches our understanding of how God's grace comes to us.