Lately I’ve been having overwhelming moments of “where am I?”. I look around and snap out of the normalcy to realize that this life is nowhere near normal.
A couple weeks ago, I was in a school bus heading to a going away party that the teachers were throwing for us. As I sat in this bus, I had one of those moments. A school bus in northern Thailand, surrounded by teachers speaking in Thai, driving to a going away party. Even though this felt like my new normal, nothing about it was remotely normal. When we got home from the party, I arrived to a message from my dad. He was telling me that they took down the Christmas decorations and the house was back to normal. The sparkle was gone and normal was back.
This got me thinking about the word normal. The world defines normal as conforming to a standard, usual, typical, expected, ordinary, average, run of the mill, common, conventional, mainstream, unexceptional. When I read this it just solidifies the fact I never want to be normal. I never want to live a life defined by such uninspiring words.
But by the grace of God, He calls us out of this mediocre version of normal. Instead, He calls us into His amazing version. I think if God were to define normal He would define it as living a life striving to be Holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4). Normal would take on a whole different meaning.
The life of David embraces this concept so fully. David was a shepherd that God had chosen for much bigger things. David went on to be anointed as king of Israel, defeat Goliath and be victorious over many, and eventually Jesus was born in his family line.
2 Samuel 7:8-9
“Now then, tell my servant David, this is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on Earth.”
God took David from his field and gave him a great kingdom. David was receptive and had a yes spirit. He lived striving towards what God had for him and not what the world had. That’s how I want to live. I want to strive towards what God has for my life and not what the world says I should do. Nowhere in the bible does it call us to live lives that could be described as average or ordinary. We are called way beyond our idea of normal. So, we get to live lives that reflect that. A life that may be weird, extravagant, remarkable, exceptional. Lives worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1).
When the hype wears off and things begin to settle in, it becomes easy to lose sight of what God is doing. It becomes easy to fall into routines and schedules. It becomes easy to get comfortable. But instead of falling into the trap of comfortable mainstream, reevaluate how God is using you and strive for more. Instead settling for the field, seek out His kingdom.
