January 2025

Letter from the Committee

The Heroism of the Mundane

Happy New Year, friends!

As we each sit back and consider our lives from a bird’s eye view, what ambitions do you have for this year? We tend to envision radical shifts to effect the change we desire, and sometimes we are called to do just that. Conversely, it is far from our natural bent to appreciate the value of simple things, ordinary tasks, or seemingly insignificant steps.

These are what comprise the majority of our days – brushing teeth, folding laundry, washing dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning up after little ones. Yet, perhaps consistently abiding with the Lord in the mundane is the chief executor of real change and growth in our lives!

Christ lived only about 10% of his life in the public eye, when his ministry of miracles and preaching became so widely recognized. Were his formative years wasted? Or were they rich in the communion with his heavenly Father and in submission to the Potter’s completion process? He is our ideal model.

This month, we celebrate the birthday of beloved author, J. R. R. Tolkien. His creative stories share the power of small people taking one small step at a time to achieve the most heroic of aims. In The Hobbit, Tolkien’s wise character, Gandalf, encapsulates the sentiment by saying, “I have found it is the small, everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.”

Have you received the blessing of a smiling face on a discouraging day, or someone opening a door when your hands were full? An insignificant effort on the part of the giver can mean everything to the receiver. These “ordinary” but habitual acts each become threads in a tapestry that tells a story of truth in your life–uniquely designed, beautifully crafted (using both the light and dark elements), and fundamentally marked by His hand in and around your life.

Let the ordinary in your life always point you back to the true Agent of Change, and that overflow will endow what is simple to you with rich significance to those around you.

Your Stoa Alumni Committee,

Samuel Durand (AR), Nicole Kaiser (MT), Elizabeth Stapleton (OK)

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