Ordinary Life

            I recently had a conversation with my mom on communication day and felt at a loss for words through most of the conversation. If I wasn’t asking questions about things going on at home or talking about my recent sickness, I felt like I didn’t have anything to talk about. Later that day I thought about why I would feel like I had nothing to say. One of my team members and I talked and finally came to the conclusion that life here has become so ordinary, so normal, that so much of what we do seems like it’s not worth talking about. I could talk about the orphans that we play with every Saturday at the abandoned babies home, the child prostitutes that we teach about Jesus every Tuesday and Thursday at the squatter camp, or the goat eating a Marulla fruit two feet in front of me as I type this blog; but it all seems so trivial.

I feel like I should have some big, amazing story every time that I communicate with home, but maybe I just need to look for the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary. First of all, I’m still in Africa, an act of God without question. I have seen God at work daily here, even if I don’t recognize it until it’s over and done with. I’ve seen spiritual warfare like never before and seen miracles before my very eyes. What excuse then do I have to see this as ordinary life, unless I see it through God’s eye?. Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so all of the spiritual warfare, miracles, and all that we see while we are here is what God knows and experiences every day.

I don’t believe that there is anything wrong with an ordinary life by what is ordinary for God, but for those of us that are still human, the life we are called to will look extraordinary by human standards. We must care for the orphans and the widows, love our neighbor (and enemy) as ourselves, be soldiers in a spiritual war, and continually worship our LORD. This is what I see my team doing here daily. No, we’re not perfect, and we still have times where team unity is a struggle, but I see everyone on my team walking out into the day prepared to care, love, fight, and worship, and it’s a beautiful thing. Whether I call this life that we’re leading normal, ordinary, or radical and extraordinary, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that we follow where God leads us: “to Jerusalem, Judea, and to the ends of the earth,” we will be faithful.

 

“Lead me on and I will run after you!” -“One Pure and Holy Passion”

 

Leah Rose (Colile Lukuele)