We are told to “dream big”, “Just do it”, make courageous steps, take risks and make a difference. We are all out to CHANGE THE WORLD! These things get us jazzed, inspired and depressed all at the same time. It would be easy for us to think that “one day” we will be able to attain this. “Once my kids are grown up”, “When I get out of school”, “When my life is put together”. Our culture screams at us to go big or go home. We live in a world obsessed with “greatness”.
In frustration of never feeling we can attain the extraordinary, many of us have gone home. We have forgotten the power of the ordinary. Why? Because we’ve believed a lie: that ordinary = meaningless. We’ve believed that our regular, daily items are not good enough to make a difference. We then live in an “if only” mindset, wishing we could do something of real significance.
I’m here to tell you that it’s time to rebel against this mindset. Here’s what I’ve been hearing from women everywhere:
- I don’t do much, I just babysit my friends kids so they can go to work.
- I can’t think of anything I do to make a difference… all I do is make meals for friends who are sick or have just had children
- I invite my neighbours over for coffee, but that’s nothing special.
- I sit with people at lunch who are alone, but I don’t see anything great about that. I’m not building orphanages in Africa.
- I wish I could do something but between work, my kids school and activities, where’s the time?!
- I’m not a really outgoing person. I like to go out for coffee to have meaningful conversation with someone one on one. I don’t like crowds so you would never catch me speaking in front of large groups.
- I work behind the scenes. I like to clean for people who have no ability to clean up their homes. It’s nothing, really.
I remember staying with a woman who opened her home to anyone who needed a place to stay. She repeated over again how she didn’t feel it was “enough”. Are you kidding me?!
We dismiss our ordinary acts and measure them against people who we feel are truly changing the world. These people are usually those who have sold millions of books, have a TV show, and travel the world. But do these people know the individuals you do? Nope. They don’t. If you asked the individuals you serve if they feel your contribution isn’t significant or needed, what would they say? Isn’t ONE person valuable enough? Why do we downplay the power of investing in the small?
Has someone invested in your life or helped you in some way? Was it “big”? Did it matter? Where would you be if they hadn’t?
Don’t go home. You don’t have to go big. Just go somewhere and know that along the way your seemingly “ordinary” is making a difference.
6 Responses to Ordinary does not = meaningless
Jen
August 29, 2012
“Go big or go home”: what an apt way to put this lie we find ourselves believing. Thanks.
connie
August 29, 2012
thanks Jen. It’s something I believed for far too long.
karalee
August 29, 2012
Its sad. We have traded so much for so little…the “little things” like having time for our kids or really listening to someone or lending a hand to a stranger struggling to get to their car with an arm load of groceries and a screaming kid or smiling at someone who is serving you and using manners….list is infinite. We have traded it for the guise of greatness. But true greatness, I think, is to be humble enough to serve others around you in obedience to God. I saw a commercial the other day and a guy said “the results are not yet in but early data shows “likes” are more desirable than hugs.” Its revealing. Giving away the true intimacy for the manufactured glory and recognition of people you don’t know. You may be underappreciated for the little things you do but the little things are what makes life real. I am rambling…
connie
August 29, 2012
it’s a good ramble, Karalee! very well said
Tim
August 29, 2012
So true, Connie. Ordinary does not mean unimportant. I love that scene in The Great Divorde where C.S. Lewis describes a scene on the borderlands of heaven:
“Is it?…is it?” I whispered to my guide.
“Not at all,” said he. “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith and she lived at Golders Green.”
“She seems to be…well, a person of particular importance?”
“Aye. She is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”
…
“And who are all these young men and women on each side?”
“They are her sons and daughters.”
“She must have had a very large family, Sir.”
“Every young man or boy that met her became her son – even if it was only the boy that brought the meat to her back door. Every girl that met her was her daughter.”
“Isn’t that a bit hard on their own parents?”
“No. There are those that steal other people’s children. But her motherhood was of a different kind. Those on whom it fell went back to their natural parents loving them more. Few men looked on her without becoming, in a certain fashion, her lovers. But it was the kind of love that made them not less true, but truer, to their own wives.”
We can all do ordinary things every day that are important to God and the people he puts in our lives. Thanks for the reminder here, Connie.
Tim