A mini review of Michael Horton’s Ordinary: Sustainable Faith in a Radical, Restless World.
As a millennial who embraced the passion and zeal of a “radical” generation and who determined to change the world in big ways, Ordinary resonated with me. When you picture yourself changing the world and then find yourself changing dirty diapers, you lose heart. I’ve been there, and thus encouragement to have courage to be faithful in an ordinary life is timely.
His observation that the development of youth groups produced a Western church of perpetual adolescents shocked me but rang true. So did his exposé of our new, positive view of ambition. (Because we’ve been so inured to the modern view of ambition, Ordinary is worth reading for this section alone.)
Horton spends a fair amount of time both quoting modern writers and rehearsing small pieces of church history. He ends in firmly Presbyterian ground. Whether or not one agrees with his Presbyterian convictions, the Christian reader can benefit from his reminder than ordinary means of grace are every bit as miraculous as dramatic showings of grace.
Horton’s description of an “extroverted” piety that does works and sees them as a two way gift rather than a hard labor is beautiful.
Favorite Quotes from Ordinary:
“It’s only by resting in Christ that we find ourselves active in good works.”
Michael Horton
“Things should fall apart, but they don’t.” (God is sustaining.)
Michael Horton
“To be content with Christ’s kingdom is to be satisfied also with his ordinary means of grace.”
Michael Horton
Note: I enjoyed a good laugh about Horton’s picture of the farmer of the mustard plant scattering his soil to increase his acreage. Yes, he was trying to be ridiculous. But no worker of the soil would raise such a question at all.
Check out my list of favorite reads of 2022 here.