Living an Uncommon Life

At church last night, I was moved by the sermon. The idea was that in order to accomplish uncommon things in your life, you must be willing to live an uncommon life. Jesus was the truest example of this notion. He did not do things the way people around him did things, he didn’t speak “safe” speeches, he didn’t speak them at the “appropriate” times, and he didn’t give these speeches to the people you would have suspected. He lived an uncommon life in order to accomplish extraordinary accomplishments. What a perfect role model for us in every aspect.

Sometimes is hard to do the uncommon instead of the common or popular thing to do. Sometimes I feel isolated in our group of friends because of our choice to spend Saturday nights at church, refrain from using bad language, to limit our alcohol consumption, etc. It makes us the “uncool” ones. I struggle with all these things and occasionally I fail. I am a sinner, but I have a desire to grow to be more and more Christ like. I want to live an incredible life that inspires hearts to soften and unbelievers to believe and this takes stepping outside of the box and saying and doing uncomfortable things. It may even mean being an outsider sometimes most of the time.

The pastor gave three steps to live an uncommon life:
• Say uncommon truths
• Go at uncommon times
• Have uncommon targets

I didn’t sleep very well last night, I was in deep thought. What do these steps mean and what would they look like in my life? I can tell you about a time in the past when I invited an ex-boss who was as vulgar and nasty as they come, to Easter service at our church, while I was at work. What was the outcome? He didn’t say anything at the time. The day I put in my resignation, he came to me with huge tears in his eyes and thanked me for caring about such a jerks salvation. He said that it meant the world to him. Wow! What a risk to invite him but such an amazing outcome.
I wish I had more stories about when I took a risk, but sadly I don’t take that leap of faith very often. I am usually scared that I will offend someone. I prayed last night that God would give me the courage to live this way more often and the faith to continue to do so even when faced with rejection and isolation. We were created to live an uncommon life!