whatever happened to ordinary? our culture is obsessed with EXTRAordinary. we want our children in organized sports at 2. attending the best schools at 3. reading by 4. top of pre-k, t-k, u-k, (whatever "K") class at 6. on the path of the educated and successful at 7. we want the biggest IRA possible. the fattest salary, the most beautiful pottery barn house, the newest car, the latest gadget, and so on and so forth. but not only does the desire for extraordinary rage in the day to day lives of people like you and me, it is raging in the church.
people have decided that the church must be filled with all things extraordinary; the teaching, preaching, worship, children's programs, mission's programs, women's ministry, men's ministry, the facilities, the web-site, the advertising, etc...etc... all must meet this standard of EXTRAORDINARY. the people in the congregation must be "radical" and hell bent on not "wasting their life." and if for one sunday, or for one season this standard of extraordinary is not meeting the people's "needs" they just move on down the street to the next EXTRAORDINARY church.
many church's weekly goal is this... satisfy the extraordinary.
how exhausting it must be as a leader of a church to muster up all of these tricks out of the magician's hat week after week after week...
but what if the church's goal, our goal, was simply to be faithful in the small things? what if i get to my death bed and all i have accomplished is 80 years of an ordinary life, simply abiding in my relationship with my Savior... no theological books written, no revivals attended, not extraordinary amounts of children adopted or birthed, not an extraordinary amount of organized missions trips attended, no VBS manuscripts written, not enough extraordinary years of home school under my belt, not an extraordinary amount of people "converted" under my guidance, by all extraordinary standards not enough "fruit" to prove my love for Jesus... BUT instead, 60 years of faithful marriage, 4 children that i didn't kill while i was raising them, a family that i cherish despite our dysfunction, sweet friends whom i adore regardless of their race, religion, political persuasion, or relational status... would i be deemed "un-radical?" would "failure" be stamped on my church attendance sheet?
don't hear what i am not saying!!
i think adoption is important and biblical. there is no greater way to understand the gospel then through actually touching it, feeling it, and seeing it through adoption. we are commanded to take care of orphans. this looks very different for everyone. it might not be actually adopting children from foreign countries, but rather laboring for 35 years at French Camp Academy and ministering to the orphans there.
i think missions trips are important and biblical. but you don't have to go much further than your living room to be a missionary. your greatest mission field is your family and if you are having a hard time being faithful there then Africa may not be for you.
i am not in the business of "saving" people. THANK GOD!! that is the job of the Holy Spirit. i have been called to share my life, my home, my experiences, and my Savior. how amazingly free it is to rest in the Sovereignty of God and realize that He does not need weak, pathetic, little me to accomplish His purposes.
someone i really respect recently said something like this,"if i can just be faithful in small things like loving my wife and my children, and simply make it to seeing God face to face, I will have accomplished the extraordinary!"
when i think about this concept of extraordinary i think about my mom. i think she has done extraordinary things like raising me and my four siblings, loving my dad for 37 years,... and actually surviving, unscathed, as a pastor's wife. because of her illness some might determine she is no longer able to produce extraordinary. her ordinary days of breakfast at panera's, fox new's watching, children and grandchildren calling, might not meet the standard. but i know without a doubt that my extraordinary God is using my mom in more extraordinary ways then i can imagine, even in the midst of the storm. my mom is simply abiding in her relationship. she only has herself to offer as a living sacrifice. God uses ordinary. because in the ordinary others see Him.... not our man-made religious agenda of extraordinary. God wants us to get out of His way and let Him use the ordinary, mundane, daily routines, to reveal His extraordinary ways.
This ordinary size 10, stay at home mom, is off for an ordinary day, with my four ordinary children, in my ordinary house, with ordinary dirt, and i will welcome home my ordinary husband who makes an ordinary salary, and we will have an ordinary evening together... and hopefully an ordinary 50 years together.... serving an EXTRAORDINARY God, whom we love and adore, for an extraordinary eternity!
*big sigh*,
~s
don't hear what i am not saying!!
i think adoption is important and biblical. there is no greater way to understand the gospel then through actually touching it, feeling it, and seeing it through adoption. we are commanded to take care of orphans. this looks very different for everyone. it might not be actually adopting children from foreign countries, but rather laboring for 35 years at French Camp Academy and ministering to the orphans there.
i think missions trips are important and biblical. but you don't have to go much further than your living room to be a missionary. your greatest mission field is your family and if you are having a hard time being faithful there then Africa may not be for you.
i am not in the business of "saving" people. THANK GOD!! that is the job of the Holy Spirit. i have been called to share my life, my home, my experiences, and my Savior. how amazingly free it is to rest in the Sovereignty of God and realize that He does not need weak, pathetic, little me to accomplish His purposes.
someone i really respect recently said something like this,"if i can just be faithful in small things like loving my wife and my children, and simply make it to seeing God face to face, I will have accomplished the extraordinary!"
when i think about this concept of extraordinary i think about my mom. i think she has done extraordinary things like raising me and my four siblings, loving my dad for 37 years,... and actually surviving, unscathed, as a pastor's wife. because of her illness some might determine she is no longer able to produce extraordinary. her ordinary days of breakfast at panera's, fox new's watching, children and grandchildren calling, might not meet the standard. but i know without a doubt that my extraordinary God is using my mom in more extraordinary ways then i can imagine, even in the midst of the storm. my mom is simply abiding in her relationship. she only has herself to offer as a living sacrifice. God uses ordinary. because in the ordinary others see Him.... not our man-made religious agenda of extraordinary. God wants us to get out of His way and let Him use the ordinary, mundane, daily routines, to reveal His extraordinary ways.
This ordinary size 10, stay at home mom, is off for an ordinary day, with my four ordinary children, in my ordinary house, with ordinary dirt, and i will welcome home my ordinary husband who makes an ordinary salary, and we will have an ordinary evening together... and hopefully an ordinary 50 years together.... serving an EXTRAORDINARY God, whom we love and adore, for an extraordinary eternity!
*big sigh*,
~s
No comments:
Post a Comment