Extraordinarily Ordinary

I want to be spectacular. I want to do amazing things. Meaningful things. I want to be extraordinary.

But lately I’ve been feeling very ordinary. Normal.

In most (certainly not all) church circles, there’s an unspoken tendency to place higher value and praise on the extraordinary-est people … the greatest worship leaders, the craziest youth pastors, the liveliest communicators. I think this trend among Christians is even greater outside churches … the farther you go from home, the poorer the people you serve, the more it costs you, the greater the “approval” that comes from within our culture.

Please don’t misunderstand me, people that follow Jesus wherever he leads – serving the under-served and giving up much personal comfort and gain –  are to be greatly praised, and we’ll likely see many of them greatly praised by God himself when things here wrap up.

I think as a culture, we’ve come to place such high value on those callings, that we tend to overlook too many “ordinary” people pursuing Christ in much less glamorous, but equally as sacred callings. In such a culture, the realization that you may never be the “-est” of anything can lead to discouragement. I know it has for me. And that’s mostly pride talking.

The realization also did something else in me. Something unexpected. It inspired me to do every “regular” thing I do the best I can. To be the best husband, father, friend, employee, coworker I can. And not in an achieve-the-American-dream sort of way. More in a I’m-here-because-this-is-my-calling-and-I-want-to-fulfill-it way.

I want to be the most extraordinarily ordinary person I can.

And I think the world could use more ordinary people.

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