Down-to-Earth Spirituality: Encountering God in the Ordinary, Boring Stuff of Life

Front Cover
InterVarsity Press, Jan 13, 2003 - Religion - 208 pages

Most books on spirituality focus on disciplines like prayer and Bible study. But this can mislead us into thinking that God can only be experienced when we are doing something "spiritual." Apart from private devotional times or church on Sundays, God may seem distant and even irrelevant to our daily lives. R. Paul Stevens has a radically different view of Christian spirituality. True spirituality, he says, is down-to-earth--we encounter God in the ordinary, common stuff of everyday life. Taking his cue from the biblical story of Jacob, Stevens explores the Genesis narrative and uncovers how ordinary moments are made extraordinary, transformed by the presence of God in the midst of the mundane. Dreamer, schemer, worker and entrepreneur, Jacob embodies a multifaceted life of earthy passion and gritty spirituality. Jacob encounters the sacred not only through visions of ladders to heaven and mysterious wrestling matches with angles. Jacob also meets God at home and at work, at meals and in sleep, in solitude and in relationships. From birth to death, through every passage of life, Jacob sees God in the routine details of his everyday experience. "Everyday life is the spiritual discipline in which God continuously and graciously meets us," Stevens writes. And in this book, Stevens helps us see that what appears commonplace on the surface actually has great spiritual significance. When we least expect it, God surprises us by re-enchanting our daily experience and making every moment an opportunity to experience his blessing.

 

Contents

Foreword by Charles Ringma
9
The Earthy Spirituality of Jacob
11
Genesis 251928 20 888888
20
Genesis 252735 27140
28
Genesis 2627
40
Genesis 281022
54
Genesis 29114
67
Genesis 291430
79
Genesis 35
123
Genesis 3750
136
Genesis 38
149
Genesis 4250
155
Genesis 48122 492933
166
Epilogue
182
The Family Tree
185
The Story in BriefGenesis 2550
186

Genesis 291420 311013
92
Genesis 322628
103
Genesis 34
113
Notes
188
Copyright

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About the author (2003)

R. Paul Stevens is professor emeritus of marketplace theology and leadership at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, and a marketplace ministry mentor. He has worked as a carpenter and businessman, and served as the pastor of an inner-city church in Montreal. He has written many books and Bible studies, including Doing God's Business, Work Matters, Marriage Spirituality, The Other Six Days and Spiritual Gifts. He is coauthor (with Pete Hammond and Todd Svanoe) of The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography.

Ringma (Ph.D., University of Queensland) is professor of missions and evangelism at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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