This morning I picked raspberries. The sun was out, but I was bathed in the gentle shade of the early day. The deep red of the berries stained my fingers and the thorns scratched my arms, but I was free to set a leisurely pace to my picking, so despite the scratches, I enjoyed my time outside immensely. I came inside with a nice-sized bowl of raspberries that I plan to make into a pie this afternoon.
sun
shade
stained fingers
scratched arms
There was absolutely nothing extraordinary about my morning picking berries. In fact, as I reached up through the thorny branches in order to grasp a particularly plump berry, I heard the Father whisper, "Yes, Sarah. You're very ordinary."
I suppressed a bit of a giggle as I realized how non-pc our God can be. "Very ordinary." It's not the sort of thing that people flock to conferences to hear. Fortunately, He has been preparing my heart for this very word. This very ordinary word.
You see, friends,over the past few months, we had been grieving the loss of our life here in the inner city, our un(convent)ional life, as it were. We moved to Kansas City three years ago, with hope in our hearts, and a belief that God was planting us here for a long season, perhaps even for our whole lives.
If you've been following along on facebook or here, however, you'll know that seasons change, and the thing that God calls you to one day, may disappear the next. For the most part, we've come to grips with that reality and have recognized that, as Creator of the Universe, our God may know a thing or two more about what's good for us than we do.
Therefore, we're getting ready to trade in our un(convent)ional life in the inner city, for a very ordinary life in the suburbs. The suburbs, friends! I never thought that I'd be writing that, and I never thought that I'd believe it to be a good thing...a God-thing, even, for this season of our lives.
The funny thing is, however, that God keeps showing me that we've been living pretty ordinary lives all along. Oh, I wanted to do something extraordinary here in our urban home. I wanted to grab onto that missionary lifestyle and show the world what could happen in the inner city. But, as it turns out, we've simply done a lot of ordinary things....we've given people food and filled up many water bottles, we've made friends with the wonderfully-kind neighbors with the scary-offensive sign across the street, we've given a few homeless men some work, and David had the joy of bringing precious R. to the Lord. Beautiful things? Yes. Extraordinary? Not really.
Fortunately, God doesn't depend on me to be extraordinary. In fact, He's showing me how my very ordinary life can actually give Him more glory than the extraordinary life that I wanted to have, because it's the life that He has chosen for me right now, and that is surely the life that is better than any that I could dream up.
So, if this non-techy gal can figure it out, I may just change my blog header to read "Our Ordinary Life," and embrace this next season that He has given. And I'll be praising God that He's got that extraordinary thing pretty-well covered on His own.
Therefore, we're getting ready to trade in our un(convent)ional life in the inner city, for a very ordinary life in the suburbs. The suburbs, friends! I never thought that I'd be writing that, and I never thought that I'd believe it to be a good thing...a God-thing, even, for this season of our lives.
The funny thing is, however, that God keeps showing me that we've been living pretty ordinary lives all along. Oh, I wanted to do something extraordinary here in our urban home. I wanted to grab onto that missionary lifestyle and show the world what could happen in the inner city. But, as it turns out, we've simply done a lot of ordinary things....we've given people food and filled up many water bottles, we've made friends with the wonderfully-kind neighbors with the scary-offensive sign across the street, we've given a few homeless men some work, and David had the joy of bringing precious R. to the Lord. Beautiful things? Yes. Extraordinary? Not really.
Fortunately, God doesn't depend on me to be extraordinary. In fact, He's showing me how my very ordinary life can actually give Him more glory than the extraordinary life that I wanted to have, because it's the life that He has chosen for me right now, and that is surely the life that is better than any that I could dream up.
So, if this non-techy gal can figure it out, I may just change my blog header to read "Our Ordinary Life," and embrace this next season that He has given. And I'll be praising God that He's got that extraordinary thing pretty-well covered on His own.
