There seems to be a simple truth about we human beings. We tend to be content with the usual. I was driving past a house the other day and noticed a flat screen television hanging on the wall. A few years ago I would have been impressed. This day I actually thought, "How ordinary!" You see several years ago that home would have been on the cutting edge. A flat screen television would have meant that they had the means to buy an electronic device that most people could only wish for. Today it was in an average, almost rundown, home with nothing about it that said cutting edge. This once amazing technilogical advance has now grown very ordinary and usual.
I was thinking about this in terms of the rest of life. How many things that used to amaze us now don't even cause us to notice. It used to be that you would never dream of having a computer in your home. Computers were just too expensivea and didn't do enough of the stuff that would benefit the average person. Now most homes have at least opne computer if not several. I have a phone that has a computer in it and does far more that the first bulky home computer I owned. Computers used to wow us and now they have become ordinary and usual. There are many more examples of this phenomenon if we stop to think about it.
As I thought of this the other day it made me stop and think about my faith. How many things have I seen God do in the past that when I see it now seem less amazing? My prayer is that there are not that many. But the reality is I can remember how incredibly amazing my relationship with God was when I first became a believer. Nothing was usual or ordinary any longer. I saw everything differently. Everything I experienced in those first few days, months, and years was new and almost unbelievable. Now I interact with God on a daily basis and many, many times each day. The things that I would have found absolutely amazing in the early days I almost expect these days.
At face value you could have at least two arguments for why this is a good thing. First, you might say that it means I have matured in my relationship with Jesus Christ. I can anticipate what my wife is going to do or say more easily after knowing and living with her for the past 13 years. You might expect that I would know a little better what God might do after knowing Christ and having the Holy Spirit living in me for 22 years now. Second, you might say that I am more aware of the spiritual activity in my life and aware of the way that God is interacting with me and my ministry. I would not find fault with either of those arguments. But there is more to the story.
I do not want my relationship with Christ to ever be ordinary or usual. To get to the point where I actually hear myself say, "OH, it's just Jesus. He always does that" would be absolutely terrible. I can't imagine that the disciples would have been business as usual if Jesus had raised another 50 people from the dead after Lazarus. I can't imagine the folks who saw the excitement of the blind man seeing for the first time in his life would grow tired of seeing the same enthusiam many times over. I never want to get to the point where the movement of God in and around me leaves me unimpressed, unmoved, and not left in awe. That would be one of the worst things I could ever imagine.
So what is the remedy? I believe the remedy is to always remember to reach higher. Reach higher in our expectations of how God interacts with humanity. God is not limited to giving us the best parking spaces, blessing us with a few extra dollars, or even repairing the disagreements we have at work. God can and does do all of those things, but they do not define God. God is the God of creation, floods, rainbows, waters parting, wet wood burning, dry bones living, blind seeing, lame walking, dead men rising, and the resurrection. So why do we expect to see just the little things from this God? Why do we not expect God to create anew, fulfill His promises, part new waters, start new fires, give new sight, and continue to raise the dead to new life? We forget to reach higher in our expectations of God.
The challenge is for me and for you to reach higher and become awed by God again. Expect the unexpected not just the usual and ordinary. If we are only aware of what we are used to are we really aware? When we reach higher and expect more of God we will see more of what God is doing in and around us. There is a song that Charlie Peacock wrote a number of years ago entitled, "Aim A Little Higher." The song was about his dad teaching him to shoot a gun at a target. He was always hitting lower than he thought he was aiming. His dad gave him the advice to "aim a little higher, son." I think when it comes to our faith journey with Jesus Christ we need to aim a little higher with our expectations. I believe that when we do that we will be awed more often, extraordinary events will happen, and we will cease to see the usual. So reach higher and seek to be empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit to achieve the heights of potential God created in you.
