what were you doing when Jesus called you? were you in the middle of an everyday routine, or in the middle of something spectacular? were you just living life as normal or were you in the midst of an epic battle? what was going on?

honestly, I was 8 and there wasn’t much of anything spectacular going on at the time. i was going to school, playing with friends, and just being an 8 year old boy. i didn’t have a degree in theology, but i was raised in a God-fearing, Christian home. i wasn’t debating global scholars over the nuances of Scriptural linguistics found in hebrew cultural archetypes. i was trying my best, as a kid, to “be good” because that’s what God wanted from me. i wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.

but that’s the whole point isn’t it? we aren’t capable of doing anything “out of the ordinary” when we’re living life for ourselves. it’s when Jesus steps in that i can say with confidence, “God did this or that in my life” and know that i had nothing or very little to do with it.

when Jesus called the disciples from their everyday lives into this new Kingdom life with Him, they weren’t in the middle of anything fantastic either. 4 of them were fishing or doing fishing related work. 1 was sitting in a tax booth being sneered at. 1 was sitting under a fig tree, others were out walking through their town or village, doing daily chores, bringing home the bacon…or in their case the mutton.

Jesus walks in and interrupts our ordinary time every day. today, i have some laundry to do, i want to mow the yard for the last time, and pay some bills. nothing crazy. but in the middle of all that, Jesus will be there with me. i can’t even do my laundry without Him. my realm of “normal” and “ordinary” doesn’t exist. my human standards for what should happen on a day to day basis are always going to be tainted and off track. pride will creep in, selfishness will poke it’s ugly head out, and my best laid plans will be corrupted if i try to do things on my own.

but i’m also not left to just doing those everyday tasks and hiding behind them. i cannot claim t be to busy to serve Jesus as i walk through my day. if i’m repairing my nets, or straightening up my tax records, or pruning my fig tree, I mus be aware that there are greater things going on in my life now. there is a reality to contend with that is not of my making. if i claim to follow Jesus, i cannot just do the normal stuff anymore.

the life of a Christ follower is more than just the normal stuff. but we aren’t getting a big list of works together either. the deeds that happen in our life, that follow naturally from following Jesus are the natural by-product of living for Jesus and others. when we have that first contact with Jesus, we cannot look back at the life we used to have. we cannot stay in that same place. there must not be any hesitation to follow. we need to ask ourselves, why? why should i hesitate? why shouldn’t i just go ahead and follow right now? what real value is there in what i’ll leave behind? is it really all that important, or do i gain so much more from letting go? what is it exactly that i do gain from following Jesus as opposed to doing what i’ve been doing until now?

if you follow Jesus, you leave the ordinary behind. if you stay at “home” whatever or wherever that may be, you embrace something that is far less than mediocre…something very, very ordinary. it’s my choice. it’s your choice. stay on the boat, in the tax booth, under the fig tree, or get Jesus’ dust all over you as you walk behind Him in the realm of the extraordinary?