Talia Biel is a member at Crossroads Church. She is a sincere Jesus follower with a gift for connecting her faith to real life, and for sharing that through her writing. Check out her blog “Holding On To Faith.
Jesus followers, we are called to be different. To live in such a radical way that others are asking the question, why? Why does she do that? Throughout my deeper reflections this week, I have felt the Spirit urging me to live out this calling, to go from my ordinary self to living an extraordinary life. So that when I speak, for when I love, for when I care, others can see that there is something different about the way I live my life. To seek real opportunities in order to be the salt and light of Christ through my everyday actions where others one day might ask the question, “Why does she do that?”
Why does she pray for the ones who persecute her? Why does she care deeply for those who hurt her? Why does she have this underlying deep joy instilled in her?
Living in such a way that God would somehow use my ordinary life and make it extraordinary. That is what this post is all about.
Before we go any further, let’s look at the twelve. The twelve disciples. Jesus chose them right? He didn’t choose them based on any extraordinary abilities. Perhaps he chose them so he could transform their lives from their ordinariness into something much more which could have only happened through Christ himself.
The twelve were like the rest of us. They were selected from the unworthy and unqualified, flawed, full of insecurities and so on. They were ordinary men.
But they lived out extraordinary lives. It’s not because of them that they lived in this way, it’s because of the truth and power of God in them. The twelve hold an amazing spot in history that changed the way we look at discipleship and life altogether. They were certainly deemed worthy of being known as “heroes” of faith. But it does not diminish the truth that they were just as ordinary as you and I. Jesus chose them.
Jesus chooses us.
He chooses us to go from our ordinariness to extra ordinariness.
If you ask a child what she hopes to be when she grows up she will likely tell you a variety of answers.
“A teacher, a vet, a nurse, a salesperson”
The list would likely dive into dancing, animal taming, the professions of parents, and jobs that haven’t even been created yet.
This question usually causes an imagination to run away in a child.
And the typical response that you might give is a smile and encouragement, “You can grow up and do anything you want.”
There are certainly things that may hold this child back or people that want to wipe away their young dreams. There are difficult things that happen, even to children, but for the most part when you are young it seems that the sky is the limit.
It seems that for many people it can become easy to feel trapped in the ordinary. It can become a place of discontent, a place where one only dreams of the childhood freedom with endless options that once seemed to pave the road in front of them.
And yet, I would argue that there is an immense amount of extraordinary in every ordinary situation, including ourselves.
I have seen joy demonstrated, relationships take form, and laughter spread. I have seen community grow. I have seen what the sacrifice of time and ability can do for our church. It seems so ordinary, so mundane, so repetitive. But it has created a church where community is deep and people love one another. It is the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary.
I am not saying that there is anything wrong if you choose to stay in the ordinariness of your everyday life. But I am saying that you are chosen. I am chosen. Ordinary we may be, to live out an extraordinary life, chosen to do extraordinary things.
It is there, and it is likely hidden away in the most ordinary places.
You were chosen to live out an extraordinary life, to do extraordinary things. The question is, will you choose to do the same for Him?
– Talia