Extraordinary

“Have you ever considered,” asks Reepicheep the gallant sword swinging mouse in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’, “that extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people?”

He is trying to console Eustace Smith the selfish brat who lets his greed get the best of him by putting on a golden bracelet that turns him into a dragon. Eustace put his own desires above others and that always does you in. In the end he has the chance to redeem himself by putting others first and he does.

But Reep’s question is a good one. Have you ever considered that extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people?

I think so but you have to be open to it. You have to be willing to becoming extraordinary and then doing extraordinary things.

Sadly, most of us don’t.

We settle for ordinary.

We stay in the same place though it doesn’t challenge us to grow. We remain in relationships that are stale and stagnant because that’s what we’re expected to do. Routines never change. Jobs become a boring means to support what we have, though not necessarily what we want.

Standing in the Atlanta airport yesterday I was talking to my son Jeremy. Since graduating college he’s pretty much done the things that were expected of him … he was a teacher and coach ... bought a nice house … kept the grass cut … helped his wife Marie do the dishes … paid his bills on time.

And while a lot of good came out of all of this … so did a lot bad. Jobs can be lost. Storms cause trees to fall on houses. There’s never enough money at the end of the month. Routine can lead to lethargic living. Depression can set in.

So they decided to blow it all up. Sell the house. Get an apartment in town which is what they’ve always wanted anyway. Go back to school and become the family’s first Ph. D. Throw caution to the wind. Do extraordinary things which will lead to extraordinary results!

Later in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” a little girl says to Lucy, the young heroine Princess, “When I grow up I want to be just like you.”

Lucy has been struggling to grow up to become beautiful like her sister. She doesn’t think she is and has fought through the temptation to make herself into something other than who she is.

She puts her arm the little girl and says, “No you don’t. When you grow up, you want to be just like …you.”

And that’s the thing. When we embrace ourselves and live up to the potential that is who we really are, then extraordinary things begin to happen. It often leads to leaving homes, relationships, jobs, safe routines and the same old ordinary expectations that are placed on us.

I was laughing with Jeremy. “I know right? Here I am heading back to St. Martin to hook up with a friend just … to have fun. I should be working. I should be home. I should be saving the money. I should be continuing this healing that I’ve been doing emotionally. I should stay in place.”

But I didn’t. To hell with all of that!

And I’m proud that my son didn’t either ... or his sister who is in Italy for six months with her fiancée ... or his other sister who has always defied societal expectations.

Like them, there is so much more that I want out of this life before it is no longer mine. I’ve had a lot already, much of it extraordinary but …there’s more.

I believe that God wants to have all of the life that we have and not just parts of it. I want a new career that is more satisfying and rewarding than the last one. There is a girl out there with a Mona Lisa smile that I’m determined to hold onto. There’s more of the world to see that I haven’t seen.

Pausing I look up into the canopy of long leaf Palm Trees that I’m sitting under. Coconuts are plentiful in them. Pink blooms are in the bushes across the sandy road from where I am. The Trade Winds of the French West Indies is light like the blue in the sky. The warm air embraces me. I whisper a prayer of thanksgiving that I am here.

It is simply … extraordinary.