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The Remarkable Ordinary by Jill Larsen

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Jill Forsyth

When I was trying to think of remarkable things that I’ve seen in my life and the lives around me, there were a few things that came to mind. My mom living through a brain tumour, my dad changing from a “good-living” man to a passionate follower of God, my sister drowning, moving across the country – a few times, my husband changing from a rebellious young man to a man that loved God, living with a depressed man, and many more. Yet when I thought of all these things, I thought that at the root of each of them was just the remarkable ordinary. These are the days that are just so ordinary and even mundane at times, but yet something big changes in your attitude or your thinking. God is so much like that, isn’t He, where He speaks in that quiet voice. And it’s the remarkable ordinary that I want to tell you about.

They say good things come in small packages. Well, I think that sometimes big changes come in small moments as well. When I was in grade 8, I went to the eye doctor and was told that I needed glasses and that my eyes would never get better – that I would need glasses for the rest of my life. By grade 11 I moved on to contact lenses. I felt prettier without glasses, besides, glasses fogged up in the cold, and since I loved the outdoors and at the time lived in the Northwest Territories, glasses were impractical to me. For 17 years I happily wore contacts, until one sad day my eyes went pink. Thinking it was nothing; I took my contacts out and gave my eyes a break for a few days before trying a new pair. Within a few hours, my eyes were pink again. That’s when I found out I’d developed a sensitivity to my contacts. I tried a few different times, and a couple different contact solutions with no success. One day, I decided to just give contacts a try again. It had been a couple of months, and I had another pair of contacts at home. Saying a big prayer, I prayed that God would heal my eyes so that I could wear my contacts again. Then, I got them out and put them in. My husband was away at the time on business for a few days, and we had 2 young children. Within a couple of hours one of my eyes was pink. So, I took my contacts out and went to put my glasses on, and couldn’t find them. I searched frantically for a while, and then decided to try again later as my kids needed some attention. So, through blurred vision we went through our day. I still hadn’t found them by the next morning when it was time to go out. So, I put a contact in my eye that wasn’t pink and drove us to where we needed to go. By that night, I was praying to find my glasses. When I found them the next day, my prayer had changed from “please heal my eyes, I don’t like these glasses.” To: “Thank-you God for my glasses! Thank-you we live in a country and a time in history where we can just go to the eye doctor and get exactly what we need to be able to see!” and from that moment I changed from ungrateful to contented. And it went into other areas of my life, seeing how I’d been ungrateful and needed to change my attitude. In that one small incident, my whole life and perspective was changed. It was a remarkably ordinary moment.

One of the most remarkable times in my life was one of the most ordinary things I’ve ever done. When I was about 13 years old, my mom, dad, brother and I moved from Nova Scotia to the Northwest Territories.  I had major culture shock and missed my old life and friends. I’d grown up in a good and happy Christian home and at a young age of 4 years old I had prayed and made the decision to follow God. I had been surrounded by things of God my whole life. When I moved to the Northwest Territories, my whole world was shaken. The culture was a lot harder in the Northwest Territories and the way to fit in was to go to parties and dances of which I wasn’t allowed. I felt left out and lonely and for the first time in my life I was the outsider. I wanted so badly to just ignore my parents and God and to fit in. I struggled immensely with this. Then on this one remarkably ordinary day I went for a jog and I said to God, “God, I don’t know if it’s worth the price for me to serve you. It’s so lonely, and how do I even know you’re real?” Suddenly I thought of the verse “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.” from Matthew. I had sung this song since before I could remember, but had never once thought about what I was singing. But this day, I suddenly understood it. And in my heart that day I really, truly decided to seek, love, and follow God with all of me, even though it meant being different from my peers. I was still lonely after that day, but I had God as a friend and I made other friends who are wonderful friends even now. God really added to me. To this day, when I pass the spot on the road where I understood and made that decision, I still feel that same feeling of relief and peace I’d felt years ago. I think sitting on the fence between God and friends is one of the hardest places to be, and for me that day I was relieved to get off the fence and live a life for God.

These are only a couple of examples of my experiences with the remarkable ordinary. I hope that one day I can share more with you.
 

 

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