ORDINARY - Living In The Gaps
As a teenager I would attend conferences. At these conferences the speakers would tell us that we would grow up to do incredible things. To become great entrepreneurs, to lead big churches, to have large ministries.
They told us that we would change the world.
In many ways I don't think that this was particular to churches, but was an extension of western thought in general.
As I and others have grown up, I have discussed and witnessed a great sense of underwhelming; that none of us have achieved these great things that were spoken over us.
We were taught to expect greatness, rather than live with the ordinary.
The other day i heard Pete Rollins talk about this very issues. He spoke about the idea that we should try to achieve our dreams and goals, even if only for the express purpose of realising that our dreams will not make us any happier or more content.
It is not that having dreams or goals in and of itself is inherently wrong, indeed I still have things that i want to achieve, dreams that I am working toward, this need to feel like we are contributing to something bigger than ourselves is what makes us human. But when these dreams become our main source of hope, and become entangled with our ability to enjoy life, then we have a problem.
Even if we manage to achieve these things, at some point we must come down, at some point we must retire, at some point we go home, at some point we are just a person trying to make their way in this world.
It is for this reason that we must learn to just be happy with ordinary, to truly enjoy each part of our ordinary life, to live life in the space between the big things, living in the gaps between the highlights.
May we learn to inhabit the ordinariness of life, may we learn to be content, and we learn to enjoy all of life's goodness, wherever we find it.
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