Genuine, Extra-Ordinary, Everyday Life

If you love superheroes, you’ll love the old testament.  I was just reading the first chapter of Joshua, where God commands Joshua to rise to an outrageous leadership position (replacing Moses, the giant green “Hulk” of the Bible) and do the overwhelming and absolutely unsurmountable in an incredible journey that should be called “Lord of the Weanies” (because, the people of Israel were truly pathetically-amazing people).  This journey would require Joshua to deliver the promised people to their promised homeland in enemy territory.  There is a reason that God tells Joshua to be “strong and very courageous” three times in a row.  This journey includes adventures of espionage, a redeemed prostitute named Rahab, parting rivers, the freaky collapse of the great city of Jericho, and the sun standing still.  Needless to say, these matters aren’t to be taken lightly.  God orchestrated these adventures “...so that all the people of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God” (Joshua 4:24).  In the end, the weanies were successfully delivered to the heart of their homeland. The strong and courageous Joshua peacefully passed away at the ripe old age of a hundred and ten.  

Like Joshua, I believe there are times in our life when God calls us to experience the impossible and we must be very strong and courageous.  There is a myth that the most worthwhile and holy “callings” are experienced as a missionary in the darkest heart of the African congo or the Indian slums.  While this does indeed require great strength and courage, it must never discount any other adventure that God calls us to.  God has given each of His children a special, particular, and marvelous calling.  I wonder if most of us deny our calling by assuming we simply haven’t recieved our special mission from God yet.  Meanwhile, we lay around waiting to be hit in the head with a frying pan and receive a glorious cloud-parting revelation of our mission to travel to the darkest corners of the earth.  I wonder if we all do this more than we think.  In all reality, our life begins right now, in this very moment.  God’s mission has already begun and we are living in it.  

Personally, I am just a poor college art student living in Greeley, Colorado.  Obviously, I am not serving in Africa, India, or one of those dark corners of the world.  I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m no superhero.  Recently, I have begun to put away the frying pan and actually listen to God.  I found that a soft whisper took the place of the dramatic cloud-parting revelation I expected.  That quiet voice commanded me to live my everyday life as the life of a missionary with the very highest of callings.  I am the missionary of the genuine, extra-ordinary, everyday life.  That is my humble calling and I have faith that God will use my life calling in extra-ordinary ways to bring Himself glory.  He simply asks me to be strong and courageous.