Thankful Tuesday: On Ordinariness

I've struggled for the past few years with this idea of "the ordinary life".  Books like Radical come along and pressure creeps in slowly to leave suburbia for a life of hut-dwelling in Africa.  The question, What am I doing to make known His name? is always present, but life just keeps happening. 

In spite of our dreams, Jarrod and I find that there is never a good time, or never the means, to do something radical.  I crave order and close proximity to our families right now, neither of which I possess.  So I certainly don't have it in me to go somewhere radical just yet.  Visions of strapping Collin to my back and playing with orphans in another country remain just visions.

So today when Micha Boyett posted about the importance of the ordinary life and the dangers in some evangelical messages, I felt a stirring of relief.  Yes, there is a need for other children to be ministered to, but there is just as much need for my own child to be ministered to at home.  I know the Lord is saying this is a season, a very long season, but all the same.  There will be a time for dreams to be fulfilled (or maybe not), but it will be in His time.

Bonhoeffer said, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." (Cost of Discipleship)  I'm learning that "come" may not mean to the other side of the world.  Rather, it might mean learning to come to eye-level with my toddler.  It might mean speaking words of life over my husband.  It might mean loving on the people in my Community Group.  It might even mean putting the desires of someone else's heart above those of my own.

Oswald Chambers said, "All I do ought to be founded on a perfect oneness with Him, not on a self-willed determination to be godly." (My Utmost for His Highest)

This season has us here, and today I'm thankful for it.