There is no such thing as “ordinary”

Yesterday was one of my top 10 favorite devotions from O.C. (Check it out right now).  My dear friend from the other-side-of-the-pond, Oswald Chambers, wrote about despair wraping it’s hideous claws around us whenever we realize how much we’ve blown an opportunity; a moment that can never be recaptured, never reconstructed – something lost forever!  Despair comes in many colors but it’s end result is loss of hope!  And without hope there is no passion, true purposeful drive.  Relationships wither and hollow, fake, emptiness encases us in prisons of fear.  In the words of an 8th grade, “despair is a bad thing.”

Oswald reminds us of the night Jesus’ three closest friends felt despair yank them back into a depressed, numb,  sleep.  All the while Jesus  had to wrestle with God in the darkest night of his life.   O.C.’s key thought is that the NEXT RIGHT STEP is, to do whatever “Ordinary thing” is in front of you.   Stop and choose to NOT to visualize anything as ordinary.  Every moment is a present miracle –God’s presence in you and all around you!  Really!  How much do you believe this? Right now? 

These last two mornings I’ve struggled to craw out of bed and shift into “R” (=racing) . . . I’ve been sparing with what some call the “common cold.”   AND It’s against my religion to get sick (besides I’m a big baby when I’m down).  I’ve been praying for this “God view” - to accept the ordinary as extraordinary.  God so explodes your life when you choose to do this. 

For the depressed, suicidal, prophet Elijah, the next right thing to do (ordinarily extraordinaire) was to “eat and drink his Crystal Light; then go back to sleep.”   What “ordinary moment” did you let slip on by today?  Are you overwhelmed with regrets (I’ve sat with people who are worn out over concerns for their kid’s drug addiction; people in the hospital in serious condition, and young lovers finding their love gone sideways . . . they all were trying to see God present in their present tense troubles – they all are struggling with regrets.).  What will you do with what’s left of right now? 

I stopped and said hi today to a silver haired, brilliant blue-eyed 70 year old guy in the gym (He blessed my life with a little book and I plan to return the favor over coffee; hopefully some sharing as to how God can touch his life . . . I don’t think He knows my friend yet, but I promise the coffee won’t be ordinary!).

What’s the most ordinary thing in your life right now?  You might be surprised if you pause and look again (really choose to see it as miraculous). 

Nothing is ordinary unless you believe the mistruth that it is!

(More on my seven days of romance with my sweetheart – visit my personal blog)