Boring by Michael Kelley

Is your life boring? About 90% of our life is just being ordinary and doing daily life. Boring – but does it have to be?

Maybe you've read some of those books about “Doing Great Things for God!” But you're still working at the office or changing those diapers.

Kelley asks, What if God wants you to find meaning and significance in your ordinary life? What if you could see the divine fingerprint in every situation of your daily life?

That is exactly what Kelley helps us see. He is convinced that it is actually in the ordinary details of life that we get to see and experience God and His redemptive plan. This book is full of practical ideas for getting that vision. He writes about having a quiet time (again), really interacting with other people, gospel living in marriage, parenting with intentionality and purpose, leaving a margin in our money, and restoring a sense of the divine in our work.

Here is an example of his insight – this on relationships.
“We don't need a bunch of new and exciting relationships, not if we believe in the abiding presence and work of God. We need instead to lay the grid of faith over the top of these ordinary interactions we have day to day. We need to buy the coffee in faith. We need to walk in the grocery store in faith. We need to take the phone call in faith. And if we do, we'll begin to see the extraordinary invading the ordinary.” (92)

Kelley's goal is “not escaping the ordinary, but reshaping our view of the ordinary in light of the extraordinary God.” (194) So, if you've set aside those books about “Doing Great Things for God” yet want to know how to live your ordinary life with meaning, this is the book for you. You won't have to sell all you possess and go to the mission field. You'll just find God's presence and plan in every moment of your ordinary life.

Michael Kelley is director of Discipleship at LifeWay Christian Resources and is the author of Wednesdays Were Pretty Normal. He has an M.Div. from Beeson Divinity School and lives with his wife and three children in Nashville, Tennessee.

B&H Publishing Group, 224 pages.