Ordinary Matters

Two of my younger brothers are taking a Civics class at our local co-op, and they're currently studying the question of how far the government should be allowed to reach into our daily lives. In the midst of the dinnertime conversation about this issue, my mom brought up my great-great grandfather, Jesse Wineland, who was a farmer in rural Pennsylvania.

This story was not unfamiliar to me. Believe it or not, I did a whole project on this man as a fifth grader, powered by newspaper clippings and second-hand accounts from my Grandma.

The short version of the story goes that Jesse was living his life in Pennsylvania during the 1930s, running a successful little farm that made its profit off of selling milk to the townspeople. He had three kids and a wife that he loved like crazy, and would have done anything for them.

In this era of the Great Depression, the milk board mandated that all milkmen had to charge far above what the average family could afford for their milk. Their reasoning was that if milk was more expensive, they could ration it more easily and have plenty for the rest of their people. But the problem was that if milk was more expensive, then the people who needed it most couldn't afford it.

I think it's what he does next that makes him an absolute legend: Jesse refused to obey the milk board's mandate, something that ended with his arrest. He spent several nights in jail, in the same cell as a murderer. The other farmers of his area wanted to storm the jail and get him out, but his wife begged them not to.

Finally, his court case was heard, and this little, no-name farmer won the right to sell his milk at whatever price he chose.

Aside from that fact that he literally went to jail for serving his community, Jesse also did something that I absolutely love: he sang hymns the entire night for all the prisoners who would listen.

Because of this amazing story, my mom and I have been digging through Ancestry and tracing our family line back as far as we can. And... we've found some pretty cool stuff in our direct line alone. My many times great-grandfathers were amazing people.

One of them enlisted in the Union army during the civil war when he was only eighteen years old (his forty-two-year-old father enlisted with him). Which by itself isn't that cool except for the fact that they lived in Alabama. In the heart of the Confederacy.

On my mom's side of the family, originally the family was all Quakers, and actually came to settle in Pennsylvania for religious freedom away from England. Until a couple generations ago, when our great-great-great-great grandfather decided to marry a girl who was not a Quaker, and get himself kicked out of the Friends. Oh, and he was also training in the militia because the Revolutionary war was coming and he didn't agree with Pacifism.

And on the other side of the family, which originates in Germany, we supported the Protestant Reformation and were members of Martin Luther's church from the very beginning.

So.... I come from a long line of people doing gutsy things. Some I admire more than others, but still.

And I would bet you anything that if we were to sit down and dig through your family tree right now, we would find hundreds of stories just like this. People living against the grain. Daring to be different. Standing up for what they knew to be right.

If you read my guest post on Shadow's lovely blog Shine Bright this month, you'll remember that I talked about courage. Courage is born from faith. No one does anything courageous unless the Holy Spirit has planted a seed of belief in their hearts and nurtured it to maturity.

Truly, I think we all have the potential to be like those people in our family trees. Not because they did anything particularly amazing, but because they were living ordinary lives, and were being led by their convictions.

Because they believed in something, then they were able to go out and do some pretty incredible things.

Here's the thing. Doing "big things for God" always starts in the home. It always starts when someone is just going along, living their everyday life, and trusting in what they believe.

For us as Christians, what we believe is so much bigger. It's absolutely life changing. And it should transform every aspect of our lives.

But there's a kicker: that starts by just living your ordinary life. Someday, your convictions will lead you to a big decision, and God will lead you to do something completely unhinged by the world's standards.

But in the meantime?

Go home and love your family. Go outside and play with your dog. Work your job faithfully. Study hard in school. Because those things matter.

It's almost like a training ground for the real world. How can you be expected to stand for what you believe when you're suffering for it if you can't even stand for what you believe in your everyday life? In His kindness, the Lord has given us each day as a chance to practice and grow in our faith, and in our love for Him, so that someday, we will be ready to go out and be completely counter-cultural.

"Christ was never in a hurry. There was no rushing forward, no anticipating, no fretting over what might be. Each day's duties were done as each day brought them, and the rest was left to God." -Mary Slessor

Don't feel like your life is wasted if you're not doing something dramatic. God is teaching you and growing you in your faith where you need it most. ♥

Thanks for reading! Until next time, stay undistracted and keep an open heart.

Love,

~Mira