Life As Usual?

A song I love by Meredith Andrews asks some really good questions. "How could I go back to life as usual? How could I return to who I once was? I just wanna take Your story to the world 'cause You have shown me what it means to love."

I go off on a mission trip, I come back "changed." I have a close encounter with Christ; I'm "changed." I see God work miracles and my life is "changed." My faith grows. God reveals His love to me. He shows me what it means to love. I claim I'll NEVER go back to life as usual. But guess what? I find I always do, or always have up until this point in life.

Life as usual is comfortable. It doesn't stretch me. Life as usual is life as it always has been: going to church, doing my quiet times most days, hanging out with Christian friends, listening to Christian music all the time, and feeling all chummy about how good I am. Pitiful, right? You'd think after God has done so much for me, I'd be a bit more enthusiastic about His calling on my life, and I am until I fall back into the rut of "life as usual." Can anybody relate, or is it just me?

Anyway, I've been convicted. I can't sing that song by Meredith Andrews unless I mean it. I mean, I'd be lying to God with the words I sing. So, I'm convicted and determined to allow God to keep changing me, to keep me from never going back to life as usual.

I eagerly desire to reach out from my comfort zone. I don't want to be known as Kristy, the good Christian girl. I want to be known as Kristy, the one who loves as Christ loved, the one who draws people to Christ. I don't want to live life as usual. I was created for much more than that.

So, what about life as usual? I'm abandoning it. There's nothing usual about being called out by Christ (as every believer is, by the way). It's absolutely, incredibly, unusual. It's a calling from the God Who has shown me what it means to love, pursued me with His love, and calls me to love others in the same way.

Please pray with me as I enter into an endeavor into the uncomfortable, the unusual. Pray that God's specific ministries for me would be made clear to me and that I would obey Him. Pray that I would not avoid doing something He's called me to because it's uncomfortable. You should try the same for yourself. Your specific calling may be different than mine, but I plead with you, do not keep living life as usual. With God, it can be so much more than you could imagine.

Still learning,
Kristy