Day 044: Living Not Ordinary to Live Not Ordinary
God blessed us with the gift of common sense. When we access that gift, it becomes easier to understand that it is through the very act of Living Not Ordinary that we learn to Live Not Ordinary. No matter how much we read about and study the feats of others, at some point we must go out and live life ourselves. Before we can define what a not ordinary life looks like, we need to go out and live a not ordinary life.
It is interesting how quickly God works answers our desire to live differently when we tell Him that’s what w want and then take steps to show him we’re serious. When we tell the Saint Maker that we want to be Saints, and great ones, He gives us all sorts of opportunities to learn to suffer and carry our crosses with patience and perseverance! What lessons those hardships provide!
The Lord doesn’t just provide struggle for us though. He also gives amazing breakthroughs! We cannot hear these breakthroughs when we sit around moping or despairing of ever knowing God’s plans for us. We also can’t find breakthroughs when we do the same thing as everyone else does or the same thing we did before day in and day out. To receive clarity God asks us to be clear with Him. Ask Him for what you want and take steps to live differently! We h receive breakthroughs best when we go out in a limb and make some moves. Sometimes those moves are silence and prayer. Other times they’re through leaving comfort zones and taking do-able action to make ourselves better. When we don’t see the exact path we can stop and reassess the situation to see if our steps were the right ones or not.
Clarity came to me this morning. I decided to take on this endeavor of writing out what I hope to figure out about a month ago. Even though I did not know the path, I wanted to put it all out there and publicly express my lofty desires even if they seem out of my league, even to me or especially to me. I expressed my commitment to serving America and our Lord and thereby become a Patriot and a Saint. I am still stuck on how to do that! Both are far out of my reach, but if we don’t set big goals, we will surely fall short of our small ones. I let God know my intentions. From here on out I hope to know, love, and serve Him with every part of me, mind, soul, heart, and strength. I didn’t know how to do it, but I did know I couldn’t keep doing what I’d been doing. I needed to step out of comfort and complacency and start writing again, start exercising again, start reading and learning again. I didn’t know exactly what to do, but I did know some things I could do. I knew I couldn’t let unknowing paralyze me anymore.
And this morning something changed! I’m not sure why it happened or what caused it, but after my morning run, I felt this amazing clarity. I saw what has been on my heart that I’ve been denying for so long. It’s more amazing because I’ve heard this same call to do the same thing so many times, but always before it seemed too far out of reach. It still seems out of reach. I have no idea how it’s going to happen, but I don’t need to know the whole thing now. I just need to keep moving ahead and farther and farther out of my comfort zone!
You may not know the path ahead or even what right next step to take, but when you tell God you want to serve Him and then take steps in that direction and away from steps that serve your own self, doors, especially in your own mind, open!
Prayer: Beloved Lord, I don’t always see the path ahead of me or know how to get to my destination. I don’t know what my Earthly goals are. I sometimes put them ahead of eternal goals and still seem to move with less direction than Moses and his 40 years in the desert or with less vision than Saul after he was knocked from his horse. Even still Lord, You call me Beloved and show me things I could not see in my own when I show my desire to honor You. Help me to open closed doors and close open ones especially in my own mind so your path is clear. Lord, help me persevere and keep moving forward and keep doing in me things I cannot do on my own! Thank you my King. I love You very much. Amen.
God Bless…
Gratitude Journal- May 24, 2023
Thank You Lord for…
- Another mile run
- A solid idea of what I think I’m to do although I have no idea how to do it!
- Hope that you’ll show me the way!
- Better understanding that together we make things happen through little faithful steps even when we don’t see the whole path.
- A chipotle burrito recipe.
- Dinner with Z and C.
- Another day closer to the end of the year.
- Some clarity on what happens next .
- Did I mention how excited I am to start making what you showed me today happen Lord?!? YAY!!!
- Reading to C.
- Z bringing home matches. 🙂
- Breakthroughs
- Today was a good day – a REALLY good day!!!