The average age someone accepts Jesus as their savior is 6. The average American will graduate high school at 18. The average marrying age is 27. The average age a women has a child is 25. The average age a house is purchased is 34. The average age of retiring from a profession is 65. The average life span is 76 years.
Average. Average sounds like a dirty word. Maybe it’s because my inner, delusional perfectionist believes I’m not average. But to a large extent, the numbers, statistics, and percentages are based on people much like me. Sure, I didn’t marry by 27, let alone birth a child, but my life is much like yours.
I have dreams and goals, fears and failures. We all do. Owning a home, graduating college, traveling there, getting that job, meeting that person. But in between the dreams and fear, in between the goals and failure, is where we find our self most of the time.
I want to live life on the edge all while holding to a safety rope. I want to make the world better, but I don’t want it to cost me anything. I want to heal and mend and restore, but it can’t make me uncomfortable or scared or tired.
I want to be safe. I want to be assured. I want to be… average.
What if our lives looked different? What if maybe, just maybe, we are be risk takers? What if God is calling you, average middle aged woman, older business man, young college student, to get out of the boat and walk on water?
Peter was still an average man. He still worked his average job. He still made average mistakes. But his life was anything but average after he encountered the living God.
I’m average. And the truth is you’re average too. But I serve a God who wants to use me and you and our average lives, at t-ball games, in offices, on campus, to live lives knowing we can walk on water. If we ask…
"I want to live life on the edge all while holding to a safety rope." – so where I'm at right now. I'm asking God to use me in amazing ways but hoping he'll make the journey nice and comfortable.
Think I need to risk getting wet and step out of the boat! x
I don't have a problem with average. Average can = awesome. If everyone around you is awesome, average is good.
I think what we want is to raise the bar on what it means to be average. Imagine a world where most people are awesome. Or rather, where most people KNOW they are awesome.
I think the real concern is mediocrity. Mediocrity has an edge of evil to it.
I love that scene in the Jesus story. It's funny, sad, exciting, terrifying, thrilling all at once. It's a quintessential human moment. Each of us, every day, gets a chance to walk on water.
It's called waking up in the morning.
Thanks for the reminder!
My one word for this year was 'Uncomfortable' for that very reason – I am constantly prayer for God to use me, to do something great with my life, but in my heart it's conditional: do something great, but don't push me out of my comfort zone in the process. Great reward can come from great risk, but it's called risk for a reason. It's not easy. I am hoping the first step is acknowledging the fear and that God allows a transformation from tamidity.
Plus, question – if I'm 29 and still not married, does that mean I can refer to myself as 'above average'? That would make it a lot easier!
The stories that I remember most in the Bible and the ones that I'm taught over and over and over again God didn't call some spectacular person to do a mediocre job. The truth of it is is that He always called some awesomely mediocre person to do something incredible.
Makes me think that He might even be able to use me.
My dream is that one day I'll be like Rahab. Not the prostitute part, of course, but the part where God calls her righteous. This is Julie, the real estate agent. She lived a righteous life. I used her even when she was unusable. She was righteous in spite of herself. She was used by God.
It is so true that majority of our time is spent between the fear and the dream. If we can't learn to be happy in the 'in between' then we spend most of our time unhappy. Learning to enjoy the journey rather than waiting to be happy when my dreams see fruition has been a lifelong lesson for me.
http://www.thejourneyismydream.com
"I want to make the world better, but I don’t want it to cost me anything. I want to heal and mend and restore, but it can’t make me uncomfortable or scared or tired." –> ME. Right there. Probably never described better.
I'm on the verge of tears. This post actually hurt me (in the best possible way :)). Thanks for speaking Truth day after day. I appreciate you, Bianca!
My life has nothing to do with average.
Married at 20.
First baby at 22.
10th baby at 40.
Adopted 2 more at 46.
My peers are celebrating their empty nests, while I am at home teaching my 6 youngest children (as only the 6 olders have flown the coop). This is my 21st year of being a "non-average" homeschooling mom.
We've lived in 14 house … in 7 towns … in 28 years of marriage.
My husband has had multiple "careers".
We've "stepped out of the boat" time after time after time.
But … right now … we are nearly drowning.
We've lost sight of the boat.
We can't find our life jackets.
We don't have a safety rope.
We don't know what direction to turn.
Sometimes … I wish we were average. I wish we hadn't stepped out of the boat. I wish that we had chosen to live the "safe and secure" life that most of our peers have lived.
Sometimes … it is HARD to live a not-average life.
Right now, the Lord is keeping our heads above water (just barely),
but we are praying for Him to send a safety rope, soon.
Thanks for writing. Thanks for challenging us. Thanks for being YOU!
Hoping your week is BLESSED!
Laurel 🙂
We don't serve an "average" God, so it's no wonder that each life is special and different! I'm so glad I don't have to worry about not being married by a certain age, if I'll be able to have children, or even picking a career for the rest of my life. It's all about stepping out in faith each and every day and following wherever He leads!
Bianca, you just punched me in the stomach in the most incredible way! I've been pondering things in my heart and slowly shared them with my husband and turns out that he was thinking about the same thing. I wish I could explain the million things running through my brain but I'll just say this just encouraged me (us, when I have my husband read this.).
Amen B!
According to this average study I am not average.
B. I came home from Doc’s office so disappointed…really sad actually…they will charge 25.00 for an abortion but to check my tubes I have to pay 800.00 dollars. It’s not fair! So I prayed and asked God to speak to me and I read this. So what I got out of this Peter walking on water was that either I trust in the Creator of water and walk on it or I drown.
Any advice for meeting an eharmony match for coffee? A little nervous about it!
Mmm…love your thoughts here Bianca!! So thrilled the Lord can use an average girl like me. He doesn't need much to make Himself look good- just a willing heart!
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My name is Indy and I'm average. Thank you for taking the focus off me and putting it where it belongs, on Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:27 I feel is in part our call to ministry, "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."
Again thank you for the way you allow Him to use you to minister to us. Grateful for your life today.
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