Mediocrity is Normal...Really?

In the opening of her biography about the life of Amy Carmichael, Elisabeth Elliot describes her with a phrase that has become an intense desire for my own life in the past couple years. She says,

“The preoccupations of [young people] —their looks, their clothes, their social life—do not change very much from generation to generation. But in every generation there seem to be a few who make other choices.”

In the church today, it is a commonly accepted notion that we are supposed to live “normal” lives. We get up and go to work in the morning, just like everyone else does. We go about our classes and go to school just like everyone else does. We hang out with our friends and have a typical social life. In our free time, we can typically be found watching TV, playing some sport, reading the latest novel, updating our Facebook status, and shopping. However, what apparently makes us “different” and “set-apart” as Christians is that we go to church on Sundays (maybe even Wednesdays, too!), and have slightly higher moral standards.

“Christianity is not morality on stilts.” Leonard Ravenhill

Shouldn’t there be something radically different about our lives? Are we really supposed to be living normal, mediocre lives that don’t have an impact on anyone or anything? Is this all there is….?

True Christianity is anything but mediocre. The apostles turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Amy Carmichael rescued a thousand little girls from temple prostitution. Gladys Aylward led 100 orphans safely across mountains and stopped a men’s prison riot herself. Jackie Pullinger walked into the walled city of Hong Kong (where even the police refused to go) and saw people radically delivered from intense drug addictions and prostitution. Jim Elliot gave his life for a tribe that had never before heard of Jesus. Rees Howells established an entire Bible college, trusting God to provide all the money that was needed and interceded for the nation during World War II, that helped to shape the direction of the war. George Mueller never made requests for financial support when he established orphanages but saw God provide each and every time for money or resources that were needed.

So, what’s the difference between the majority of the church today and what the early apostles and these Christian missionaries had? It’s that they were radically given to Jesus. You see, when we truly come to Jesus and surrender everything at the cross, we no longer have the “luxury” of living normal, self-indulgent lives. We are His, for Him to spill and spend as He sees fit. That means that He can call us anywhere He sees fit. Something vital that we also need to understand, though, is that what made these men and women extraordinary was not what they did. It was Who was living inside of them. Yes, many people are still called to go about daily routines at work or school. However, they will never again be living mediocre existences. When Jesus is truly owning and operating their existences, their school or work places will be turned upside down for His glory. Eyes will be opened to see that these seemingly “mundane” routines are spiritual battle grounds. Souls of men and women are at stake, and people that He gave His life for upon the cross are living enslaved to sin, defaming His Name. Can we really stand to live normal, self-indulgent lives while the world around us perishes and goes to hell? May it never be so again!

“Normal Christianity means never being ‘normal’ again.” Leslie Ludy

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” I John 2: 15

“I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17: 14

I for one want to be “one of the few” in this generation. I can’t stand the thought of living a “normal” life any longer. All my soul longs for is that He would get the glory that is due His Name. If this means that He sends me to some distant country to share the Gospel with a tribe who has never before heard His Name, so be it. If this means staying here in America and fighting to see Truth prevail against the mounting lies, so be it. However, I know that, no matter what, it will not look normal to the rest of the world or church.

“The whole play act of Christianity which is all about us and fits in Jesus around the edges to make us feel better about ourselves needs to go. And the way it’ll go is when Christians start being Christians once again.” Eric Ludy