The Empty Space

What exactly does “extraordinary” look like?

Routine often drowns out the extraordinary. When everything is exactly as it has always been, dreams of more can fade quietly into the background. In order for life to become extraordinary, something has to change. Maybe everything.

Staying safely cocooned puts us in danger of never seeing the other side of great.

I have been plagued by complacency. The enemy prowls. His mission: to steal, kill and destroy. He tried his best this past year to suck dry the very marrow of life-giving passion I possess. It was a year marked by a blasé, vanilla kind of living-out-my-faith that left me bored and feeling useless. This year I hope for a restored, radical, unfettered, fireworks kind of lifestyle that will leave people in my wake breathless and longing for more Jesus. I hope God fills my days with opportunities to demonstrate crazy, radical love to people who desperately need to know God.

A declaration this bold calls for a change. Job openings applied for, houses put on the market, hair color altered; God is moving.

I observed during this transition that when everything gets moved around, it leaves an empty space. Items once treasured that no longer fit, disappear. The space left behind is at once bitter and sweet. In my kitchen I kept an inexpensive, round table. Many many meals, pictures colored, hard conversations, laughter, bitter tears, healing, hurting – all happened around this sweet little table. Only when the table needed a new home did I realize the sting of change.

It was in the empty space that I knew only God could provide what my heart was crying out for. The ordinary has to be relocated to make room for the extraordinary. In the meantime, the empty space feels vast, foreign, unknown.

What exactly does “extraordinary” look like?

The anticipation of what could be, what will be, bubbling up amidst the anxiety.

As I look around the empty house today, I see dreams that once were. But that’s the point, isn’t it? These dreams were once alive, but no longer exist. I have no more room for old dreams, I’ve set them aside to make room for new ones. The extraordinary ones.