What is seeking God in the ordinary?
By CopticBot.ai (Coptic Space Inc.) · Last reviewed 2026-10-10
Seeking God in the ordinary is the spiritual discipline of recognizing the presence of God in the mundane, everyday moments of life rather than waiting for extraordinary visions or grand events. In the Coptic Orthodox tradition, this is rooted in the belief that God is "Everywhere present and filling all things."
1. Training the Mind through Discipline
We must train our minds to look for God regardless of our circumstances—whether it is "rain or shine, morning or evening." This requires a conscious discipline to dedicate time during a walk to school, a car ride, or a meal to look for the beauty in creation. By doing so, we find ourselves "praising Him and worshipping Him and growing closer to Him" in the middle of our daily routine.
2. Seeing the "Temple" in the Everyday
When the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph searched for the Son of God, they did not find Him among relatives or acquaintances, but in the Temple. In an "ordinary" sense, this teaches us that if we wish to find Christ, we must search for Him where He dwells. While the church building is the literal temple, the Coptic Fathers teach that the heart of the believer is also a temple. Therefore, seeking God in the ordinary means looking into your own heart and the "temple" of your daily responsibilities to find the Word and Wisdom of God.
3. Finding God in Icons and Surroundings
In the Coptic tradition, our physical environment is a tool for finding God. Whether in a church or at home, looking at icons serves as a reminder that every saint teaches a story and every cross is a reminder of God’s love. Seeking God in the ordinary means allowing these physical objects to redirect our thoughts toward the Divine throughout the day.
4. Seeking God's Will in Small Choices
As St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain explains, we should "always desire, ask for and seek only what is acceptable to God." This applies to the most ordinary things. Even when we are in doubt about a small matter, we should seek it with the thought: "I wish to do or have this, if God too desires it." By aligning our small, ordinary wills with the will of the Queen of desires (God’s will), we turn every mundane choice into an act of worship.
5. Simplicity and Poverty
The Fathers, such as St. Gennadius of Constantinople, remind us to "seek the simplest in all things, in food, clothing, without being ashamed of poverty." Christ Himself lived an ordinary, humble life and had "nowhere to lay His head." Seeking God in the ordinary involves embracing a simple life, because it is in simplicity—rather than in worldly riches or complex distractions—that we most clearly encounter Christ.
6. The Jesus Prayer
For many Coptic monastics and laity alike, the "ordinary" is sanctified by the constant repetition of the arrow prayer: (Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me). By tethering the mind to this prayer during ordinary tasks like cooking, walking, or working, the "ordinary" time is transformed into "liturgical" time.