Five Minute Friday: Ordinary

 

This week is my very first FMF...here goes!   

Ordinary...

For three years I lived in Eastern Europe teaching missionary kids.  Today, after being gone for over a year, I read a blog of someone who teaches there currently.

I miss those kids.  I miss the environment.  I miss my teaching role and my friendships with colleagues.

It was not ordinary to me -- it was extraordinary, though that sounds like I am elevating missionary/expat life over other daily life.

Here, I am ordinary and extraordinary rolled into one.  Ordinary stay-at-home wife waiting for legal immigration papers to come through (and allow me to work).  Ordinary church member, wishing to be involved.

But to others, it is extraordinary how I would leave America and come to the Netherlands to live with and marry my man.  Extraordinary to try to learn the Dutch language.  Extraordinary that we are both interested in missions. 

Really, my lesson, of course, is to learn that I am not ordinary in God's eyes.  God sees me as special.  At the same time, should I still see myself as ordinary in God's eyes?  What makes me any different or better than anyone else?  Where is the line between ordinary and extraordinary?  Perhaps this is a lesson in humility.

This is a puzzle and a balance to find in my interactions with others...