This evening before bed, my husband and I sat in the kitchen talking, drinking tea, and sharing banana bread that I made earlier this day. As we talked, our conversation turned toward the matters of his job and how so unhappy many people are that work there. Why do they stay then? I suggested that perhaps it was because of the money (they do make a pretty penny) and because they have no other option in the middle of a recession. Yet some of them have worked there for 10, 15, 20 and 30 years, and our country has not been in a recession for that long! The reality is, is that many of them lack vision, they lack purpose, and they lack the drive that will move them from where they are to a bigger and better reality. Many of them fear that if they let go of the piece of the security they have that they will not be able to do any better. As I listened, I felt bothered and saddened by this fact as it gives fruit to nothing more than a boring, mundane existence.

Yet I feel that this apathetic attitude characterizes much of the American society. Though people long for something more, they are often afraid to go after it, fearing that if they do they will lose everything. They fear losing money, respect, family, friends, and peace of mind, especially if they fail in pursuit of what they do not have even though they can see it on the horizon. It reminds me of people who study things that they have no passion for simply because it has a better promise of making money, or people who refuse to change systems not because the existing one is effective but because they do not want to rock the boat, claiming that tradition is far better than uncertainity.

Yet it is my hope, my desire, that people reach for more. It is my hope that as far it is possible, and even if it seems next to impossible that people reach to fulfill their God-given purpose and potential. This is what makes the world go round and what changes the course of history. This is what creates jobs and orders destinies, not the boring, the mundane, or the normal.

There is a song that inspires me in this direction. I learned it maybe six months or so ago, and it is by Deluge, a Christian contemporary band. I love the song because it challenges me, it reminds me to rise above that which is ordinary and go after the things that make a difference. I do not want to be an ordinary Christian, I do not want an ordinary life, I do not want an ordinary marriage, an ordinary ministry, or an ordinary anything. No matter how much it costs me, I want a life of purpose and destiny. I want a life that matters, one that makes a difference. My hope is that if you did not already, that after reading my perhaps scrambled thoughts, you will desire that as well.