A disturbing thought struck me today.
My life is so cliché.
It sounds so dramatic and full of angst but I had honestly never had that thought until today.
I had an incredible childhood, born to a white upper middle class family. I have never known disease, discrimination or poverty. My parents are still together, never fought, I had no deaths in my family until high school when I was emotionally mature enough to handle it. Our houses were every kid’s dream, one in suburbia with a huge basement to play in and friends in almost every house on the street, one in the country with acres of land to explore, a creek and zip line running through the back yard. Along with the basic “necessities” that I’m learning aren’t even available to most of the world, plenty of food, clothes and toys, I had private Christian schooling, gymnastics training, horseback riding lessons, painting classes, pretty much anything I wanted. As I grew up I went through the dramatic teenager phase, fighting with my parents about everything I could and questioning the meaning of it all with Death Cab for Cutie ringing through my headphones. I dated my token “bad boy” and experienced my first broken heart. I played the “good girl gone bad” role and snuck out of the house, went to parties, and slept with guys. My life could have been the plot of any cliché coming of age movie.
Then I encountered God. Everything inside me shifted, and please don’t think I am in any way lessening this experience, but it still fits in the “cliché” section of my story.
I tried college and decided it wasn’t for me because I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. I tried the full time office job thing- wasn’t happy. So then what did I do? I decided to travel the world for a year and “find myself”.
Please don’t misunderstand. I went because God told me to, and I went with the intentions of serving others, sharing Christ’s love with the nations and growing in my spiritual walk along the way, all of which I’m doing.
But… It’s just so “American”! When 22 year old girls in almost any other country don’t know what they want to do with their lives, they don’t get to travel the world. It just seems so spoiled and unoriginal sometimes. I’m traveling the world to experience new things and desire to come back changed, so… what will that look like? When I go back to my comfortable life in Middle Class, USA will I… only put make-up on every few days instead of every day? Will I be more mindful of electricity and water usage? Will I stop for hitch hikers and buy more meals for homeless people? Will I get a degree in social work? Will I move to Cambodia and start an orphanage? What does living a life that is “original” and not “cliché” or “spoiled” look like?
Maybe a more important question I need to be asking is, what does Jesus say my life should look like?
There are lots of verses in the Bible describing how Christians should live their lives. That’s kind of the point of most of the books in the New Testament, but I want one key principle. I want something to apply to every aspect, I want something that says, “if you live like this, you’re doing it right, you’ve broken the mold.”
The answer I found was really simple. In fact I kind of searched for other verses that I could use that were less known because this one is kind of a Christian cliché, (and heavens that one more thing in my life should be cliché!) but it really is the simplest breakdown of a life of following Christ.
Matthew 22:35-40 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.
Love. That’s the key to a life that’s not just cliché. Love God, Love people. In every area of your life, make sure you’re doing those two things.
The thing is, the first half of this blog is a lie. My life is not just some American cliché because I have love! Maybe it took typing this blog out and visually processing that to remind myself not to listen to the lies of the enemy and discredit my story. We are called to obey God and live the life he has for us, and that looks different for everyone. There’s not some recipe to live an “original life” because then it wouldn’t be original. And even a life that doesn’t fit the mold of society’s standards isn’t any more important in God’s eyes than one that does. I don’t think God thinks more highly of someone slicing through the Amazon jungle to bring the gospel to some unknown people group than he does of the business man working a 9-5 showing Christ’s love to his co-workers. We are called to live a life of abundant love. When we do, God works through us to bring healing and restoration, break chains of bondage, and enrich the lives of those around us. When we allow love to abound in everything we do, our lives are anything but ordinary.
