But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus.
This comes into sharp focus for us when we read the lives of the saints. While no particular example comes to mind at the moment, I recall hearing of many female saints who spent most of their lives as a scullery maid in a convent, being humble and faithful to the Lord. It's sort of the opposite of what our modern culture does: it lifts up as heroes those who do exceptional (in our eyes) things, be they athletes, celebrities, etc. Conversely, quiet humility rarely makes the evening news yet we still find in such people heroic qualities. Maybe that's because we find it so hard ourselves to live in quiet humility among the crashing din of modern culture all around us.
It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes.
To this I would add: so long as we are trying to do exceptional things for God in our own strength, we prevent God from doing His exceptional things through us in His strength.
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