Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Why do I want to be invisible?

I've been thinking about this question for months. It all started when I was flipping through channels one night when I couldn't sleep. There was a motivational speaker on the public television station. I stopped to listen for a brief moment. The man repeated all of the lines you always hear. It was "shoot for the stars" "never give up" "reach for your goals" "leave your footprint". While I don't completely disagree with those statements, I'm confused by the fact that they were used so generically.

That night I didn't get much sleep. In fact I laid there wondering why I was so content with my simple life. To tell you the truth, I questioned myself a lot in those wee hours. I thought a lot about Jesus between thoughts. Did Jesus shoot for the stars? The answer was no. Of course I'm not saying that Jesus didn't do remarkable things during his life. It's obvious that he did. Even with the amazing things that Jesus did on earth, the most remarkable thing about him is that his life was remarkably simple. He didn't have status, he didn't have money, he had some friends and some enemies. Jesus loved people. I mean love in the sense of action. He loved people without return. He loved people that no one else had ever loved. That love for maybe a few hundred people all together in a few different towns made a big impact on the world. Jesus didn't have to shoot for the stars. He just had to love people and that's what he did.

I want to live an intentional life. I want to love without reservation. I don't want to leave footprints. A footprint is something you see on something that has been stepped on. I want to leave gentle hand prints on those I come across. I don't want to stand out because of a outfit I'm wearing or a car that I drive or the house I live in. I want to stand out to to a stranger that I hold the door open for at the gas station, the mom that needs a break from her kids, the friend that needs to talk or the animal that was abandoned.

I don't care about how big my TV is or what brand my shoes are. It's not important to me. I just want an ordinary life. I don't see anything wrong with that.

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