Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun. Maybe what he meant by that was that for the most part almost all of us will live routine, normal lives.
There are a few people who seem “selected” by the universe to be born into privilege or connection and they criss-cross the world on jets and win Nobel awards and find the cures for cancer.
But then lives the rest of us.
We are the go-to-the-supermarket/bank/church crowd. We are the cook-for-our-family-most-nights group. We are the do-our-very-best-to-provide-for-our-people bunch. We are the super average, normal people of the world.
That’s me. That’s you.
But I don’t think there is anything wrong about living a normal life. In fact, I’m learning that being very normal is exactly where we need to be in order to actually be extraordinary. And I’m fine with normal.
It is extraordinary when we get up night after night with a colicky baby and we do it without complaint.
It is extraordinary when we love a person who has become unloved by the rest of the world.
It is extraordinary when we are honest with our children about our faults and our shortcomings.
It is extraordinary when we see the pain and hurt in one person and allow ourselves to be available to help ease that pain.
It is extraordinary when we give up something that is ours to someone who does not have enough.
You see, all of us are actually normal under or designer clothes or our Walmart t-shirts. We are ordinary people who have families and sex and who don’t get enough sleep. Ever. We have crazy cousins and over-involved aunties and we have laughter (or tears) by the bucket-loads at family gatherings. We have warts and hemorrhoids and stretch marks and hang-nails. We talk to our dogs, to ourselves and to our loved ones who have died. We sing badly and curse at the dishwasher when it doesn’t clean the forks; we are both scared and excited for the future.
We all are this.
Even the ones who find the cures for cancer.
But we can be extraordinary when we leave a place of safety and comfort in order to offer grace or love to another human being.
This is what makes us extraordinary in our
daily
normal
mundane
lives.
How are you extraordinary? {because you are}
How has someone else been extraordinary to you?
I am extraordinary because I get up day after day and continue to put one foot in front of the other and I know that not everyone in my situation could.
I have friends who have been extraordinary to me because regardless of their own trials and tribulations they are there for me.
yes. thank you Jenni. and i appreciate your comment!
I’m going to subtly pretend that your first question is not there….
But I have been very lucky to meet very extraordinary people who have been there for me without question
- My host family in Kenya who took me in expecting nothing back for a whole year and welcomed me back prodigal daughter style after I’d been away for 5 months.
- A youth worker who came to the hospital on the most difficult night of my life and was just there with me. To offer a hug, to allow me to be afraid and not know how I was feeling and who was still there after the hospital discharged me as ‘fine’ even when I clearly was not.
- Friends who have sat with me in the darkness and tried to help me understand that I am loved and that there is a purpose.
and
- My little brother who is not aware of any of my ‘mess’ but is just there to hang out with, watch him playing Mario, go for dinner etc and of whom I am most proud of (regardless of the fact he just graduated from university with a 1st class honours degree in Maths: genius boy!)
I’m trying, I’m learning and like Jenni am putting one foot in front of the other…. sometimes that’s the best you can do…
Take care
i love this. you have some extraordinary people in your life and I think you are probably pretty extraordinary yourself!
I can tell you are amazing!! And you are so incredibly thankful. It made me realize I need to wake up and be more thankful too.. “On The Way” I appreciate your post.
Thank you for this Sarah! Earlier this week, an extraordinary thing happened. I saw someone while grocery shopping, who doesn’t live near me . . .who “shouldn’t” have been there. It was the daughter of the woman I clean for . . and she greeted me like a friend, someone she liked and was happy to see. God did something in that! God bless you, extraordinary woman of His!
My husband is extraordinary because he has the amazing ability to see me through eyes of compassion and love when I am not always lovely. Many times I have apologized for moodiness or bad attitude and he is clueless to what I’m even talking about : )
Your last line, about offering grace and love outside our comfort zones,… I’m getting hammered over the head with this in my Bible study and everywhere else – I must need to work on this!! Loved the post
awesome thots, girl…
you sound like one of my heroes, G.K. Chesterton, who said: “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”
it’s doing the “ordinary things” that make real heroes….
love you,
dad