the mismeasure of man by stephen jay gould

Other ordinary practices Warren encourages readers to sanctify include making the bed, tooth-brushing, responding well to losing one’s keys, reconciling well after spousal disagreements, idling in crowded traffic, talking with friends on the phone, drinking tea, and sleeping. Even the mundane, oft-frustrating task of checking email reminds us that “vocational holiness in and through our work” helps us to “resist the idolatry of work and accomplishment,” helping transform work into a form of prayer (pp. Warming up leftovers is a call to “eat such things are as set before me, to receive the nourishment available in this day as a gift, whether it looks like extravagant abundance, painful suffering, or simply a boring bowl of leftovers” (p. Waking up well becomes a reminder that, “How I spend this ordinary day in Christ is how I will spend my Christian life” (p. Over the course of eleven chapters, Warren highlights everyday practices that can function as means of sanctifying grace when we approach them from the posture of faith in Christ and a desire to love God and neighbor. In so doing, she is a modern-day Brother Lawrence who wants to help believers to “practice the presence of God” and thus sanctify their ordinary experiences.

Rather than focusing on the place of mountaintop experiences and dramatic consecrations (and re-consecrations) in the Christian life, Warren draws upon her liturgical sensibilities and real-life experiences as a wife and mother to alert readers to ways we can experience God in the everyday rhythms of our life. Liturgy of the Ordinary is her first book. At present, she works for InterVarsity’s Women in the Academy & Professions initiative and has a growing wider ministry as an author and speaker. She has past experience in parish work and campus ministry with InterVarsity at Vanderbilt University and University of Texas at Austin. Warren is an ordained priest who is part of the Anglican Church of North America. And everyday faithfulness does change your world, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, over the long haul of the Christian life. Tish Harrison Warren is far more concerned with everyday faithfulness than heroic spirituality. These sorts of exhortations are never as groundbreaking as their titles and press releases imply, but they can still leave the impression that your spiritual walk is going nowhere if you are not changing the world.

Evangelicalism is replete with calls for a “radical” or “extraordinary” or even “revolutionary” approach to the Christian life that turns the world upside down.

The mismeasure of man by stephen jay gould