Sean Johnson - Intentionally - The Education of Sean Johnson

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship….There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

-C.S. Lewis

My mind has been playing around with this idea of glory for a few weeks now. I spent the better part of six months last year writing about my character flaws in an effort to remove them. The writing went over very well with people, and they gave me credit for my bravery in writing about how wretched and useless I was. They praised me on my perceptiveness noticing that I’m basically a broken, twisted person who should never be allowed near the presence of God, and that for some unknown reason He’s still interested in me.

Those deep thoughts? Mostly crap.

Read the story again. It is a tale of God’s constant pursuit of man. He is the lover, and we are the beloved. He went through ridiculous pains, even coming to Earth to suffer a gruesome death on a cross, because He loved us.

Why would he go to such efforts for useless rabble? Why would he pursue to relentlessly a useless, terrible, wicked people?

He doesn’t.

When one becomes a Christian, we are taught that we are given a new heart. We are taught that the Holy Spirit literally comes to live inside of us. Our hearts become good. Yes, we still face battles with the flesh and with the enemy. But our sin? That is not who we are. Read the story again - it’s right there.

What’s better? We are glorious creatures, created in the image of God. We are tainted, to be sure. But God’s on a quest to restore our glory.

Think about it - if all it was about was our going to heaven or hell, what would be the point of life, other than looking forward to dying and being with God up in the clouds? Life on earth would be pretty pointless. But that’s not all that it’s about. God created an amazing planet that he was proud of, filled it with an endless variety of animals, and finished it by creating a glorious creature called man. What was His plan for all of that before the fall? What was the purpose of our lives before Satan got involved and mucked everything up?

There had to be something. Perhaps that’s what life is really all about - rediscovering our special purpose. And I have a pretty good feeling it’s more than finding a wife and having babies and moving up a corporate ladder working in a cubicle and playing golf on the weekends.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that the exciting part of life happens after one becomes a Christian, not before. We Christians (although we’d never admit it) find ourselves looking back at our days of wildness, of nights spent drinking and smoking and sleeping with assorted women. And while we admit that it wasn’t the best way to live a life, a part of us aches to recapture that wildness, that sense of adventure. There’s certainly little wildness in a weekend spent trimming hedges and sitting in church.

But what if life isn’t about finding God and then living your life as a safe, cautious, meek good citizen? What if life as a Christian and a life full of adventure and passion and excitement and risk aren’t mutually exclusive? What if we truly all have callings, and those callings go far beyond the pursuit of a pay raise or a larger house or a new bowling league to join?

I’m realizing that the Bible speaks of a much more exciting life. I’m realizing that we’re not worms but for the grace of God. I’m realizing that - at our best, living a life based on God’s will - we have the ability to shed our mediocrity and become the glorious creatures we always thought we could be.

I’m beginning to realize that there are no ordinary people. If only they realized that about themselves….