Editor’s note: “The Spoken Word” is shared by Derrick Porter each Sunday during the weekly Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square broadcast. This will be given Sunday, Aug. 30, 2026. This week is No. 5,059 of the broadcast.
Please note: Reservations are needed to attend “Music & the Spoken Word” in the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Find out more about how to make reservations here.
We often admire people who have accomplished extraordinary things. It’s easy to look at their achievements or triumphs and marvel at the extraordinary lives they seem to live. But upon closer examination, we find — as Charles Spurgeon once observed — that “the grandest results [come] by the use of ordinary means, by ordinary persons … in … ordinary [ways.]” (See “Notable Quotes of Charles H. Spurgeon, part 4, spurgeongems.org/quotes4.pdf.)
Most of us don’t want to be merely “ordinary.” Yet it’s impossible to become extraordinary without first being ordinary. Even the word “extraordinary” is built upon the word “ordinary.” Simply put, the extraordinary starts with the ordinary.
This is true in every walk of life. Day by day we all live very ordinary lives. We awake, prepare for the day, go to school or work, care for children and homes, eat, rest, play, prepare for bed, sleep — and then do it all again and again and again. When we climb a mountain, we take one step at a time, focused on the path before us, rarely noticing that with each step we are gaining elevation.
It’s the same with life, there come moments when we pause, turn and look back. Suddenly we see just how far we’ve come and what we have accomplished. The extraordinary beauty of the ordinary climb was there all along — we simply didn’t notice it. What once seemed ordinary was, in fact, extraordinary.
In an age of endless comparisons, it’s easy to assume that God is found only in life’s extraordinary moments. But the scriptures teach otherwise. Often, God meets us in the ordinary moments of our lives.
Samuel, asleep near the prophet Eli, was awakened by the voice of God (see 1 Samuel 3). Naaman, seeking to be healed of leprosy, was simply told, “go and wash” (2 Kings 5). Elijah found the Lord’s presence not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in “a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12). Sacred moments often come in the midst of ordinary life. God is found in the ordinary.
So if today feels ordinary, take heart. It’s felt that way for all who have gone before. As we make our daily climb, let us take time to pause, turn and look at the valley below. From that higher vantage point, we may discover that with God as our guide, what once seemed a very ordinary path has actually been extraordinary all along.
Tuning in …
The “Music & the Spoken Word” broadcast is available on KSL-TV, KSL News Radio 1160AM/102.7FM, KSL.com, BYUtv, BYUradio, Dish and DirecTV, SiriusXM (Ch. 143), tabernaclechoir.org, youtube.com/TheTabernacleChoir and Amazon Alexa (must enable skill). The program is aired live on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Mountain Time on these outlets. Look up broadcast information by state and city at musicandthespokenword.com/viewers-listeners/airing-schedules.
