Extraordinary Intentions--repost

I am still on the road to Pennsylvania.  I apologize for missing yesterday.  I left at 4am and arrived in Chattanooga at midnight, forgetting that I would lose an hour.  Admittedly we did stop for an hour at next to oldest daughter's house for breakfast and an hour at next to youngest son's house for dinner.  Great times!  Here is one of the first blog's I posted, just after meeting God for the first time and while still new in my walk.  I am still amazed with Pastor Stephen Furtick.  What a man of God he is!  Be sure to read the book "Sun Stand Still" by him.  You will find yourself reading it again and again.  Have a great day and remember that life is an extraordinary gift!

In Stephen Furtick's book, Sun Stand Still, he says "I like to think God conceals His extraordinary intentions in ordinary people to protect the extraordinary value of His purpose in our lives." This statement spoke volumes to me.  I, like most people, think I am a pretty ordinary person.  Living an ordinary life.  Wishing I could do extraordinary things.  Don't you?  Come on!  You can admit it.  No one is listening.  You want to be different.  You want to make a difference.  You want to have an extraordinary moment at least once in your life.

Psalm 118:24  "This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

Strictly speaking, I spent most of my first half missing out on the rejoicing and gladness.  I certainly am not saying there were no happy moments.  It's just that without God in your life, you sort of stumble around trying to get it right.  And trying to get it right leads to alot of stumbling.  I was raised to think that guilt was something you needed to carry with you forever.  So between the stumbling and the weight of the guilt, I was barely crawling towards happiness.  The closest I ever came to knowing God was when I had each of my children.  Six times I felt the hand of God touch my heart.  Six times I held a child who had just moments before been holding onto the hand of God.  I remember reaching for God each of those times.  My children are my greatest joy from the first half of my life.  They have provided me with most of the extraordinary moments of my life up to now.

So back to the stumbling.  When you don't know God, it is hard to have a purpose that makes you feel like you are accomplishing anything.  I reached for the success of the world.  I reached for the praise of the world.  I searched all over for happiness.  I searched in education, in marriage, in friends, in jobs, in travel, in all manner of worldly things.  And I can assure you that I remained as ordinary as the next person.  Without God in my life, I couldn't find happiness anywhere.  Oh, I had some giddy moments here and there.  Several times I had some downright hysterical moments.  But happiness......not so much.

After I met God, I began to see that He intended to do extraordinary things through my ordinary life.  And now I am waking up to a new day.  A day which the Lord made.  A day that I can begin to rejoice.  More than anything in the world, I can be happy.  Everything that has happened in the first half of my life has been to prepare me for these days.  I am not sad nor am I wallowing in the guilt of my mistakes during my first half.  I intend to take all that I have learned and do extraordinary things for the Lord.

Take heart if you are still feeling ordinary.  In God's world there is no such thing as ordinary.  God intends to use each of His children for His most extraordinary intentions.  You don't know when.  You may not know how.  But in the most subtle of shifts, suddenly you will find your place in God's world.  Read.  Study. Pray.  Share in the moments that the Lord has given you.