Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Simple Life

I recently discovered that I'm not that special.

I don't have any great talent, I'm not all that smart and I'm not too athletic. I'm just sort of average. Most of the people I know are pretty normal to. That's not a slam, it's just the truth. Sometimes I look at others lives and wonder, “how they endure being so normal?” It scares me almost.

So many average lives, filled with average experiences and average events.

And just like so many of the people I know, I'll live an average life. I'll go of to collage, get married at some point, then start the 'ol nine to five. Eventually I'll die. Every day humans enter and exit the life cycle. It's just how things go.

No, I haven't been reading Ecclesiastes lately (to much). I desperately want to be special but not desperately enough to do anything about it. Every morning I get up and....live. The whole living business gets in the way of being special.
To be special you usually have to work hard. Perhaps if I found something I could be special at, then I'd be able to work toward it.

After all, God calls us to do our best for him, in everything we do. So being special (at least to some extent) looks like obeying God. It looks like living an above average life in an average situation.

The hard part for me is, sometimes being special means obeying God and just being normal. Of course God hasn't called us to mediocrity but not every one can cure cancer. What's hard for me is finding a balance, between being steadfast in the station God has put me in, and wanting to be superman.

Because ambition can be a good thing, but it's tough not envying the famous and subsequently ignore the blessings God has given me.

Ecclesiastes 2:18-20 & 24-25
18 I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19 and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20 So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun.....There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?


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On A totally different note, I have zany idea I want to try. I want to go into the nursing homes in my area and talk to people. I want to bring a pad and pencils and just listen. The greatest generation this nation has ever seen is dying, and so many wonderful stories, special stories are being lost. They need to be recorded.

I probably won't do it but it's a nice idea.

Thanks!

Levi

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