Each of my two daughters is like me in certain ways. My younger daughter, Dorothy, and I share a love for movies and a wicked sense of humor. But Dorothy is more like her mom—creative, highly intelligent, and empathetic. However, my older daughter, Julia, looks like my clone and has inherited many of my hopes and a few of my fears.
Over a recent holiday weekend, I took some time to spend with Julia, talking with her about her dreams for the future. She runs a successful girls’ ministry at our church, is a licensed professional counselor, and is just about to publish her first book—and she’s not even thirty! Yet she expressed apprehension that she was not progressing quickly enough in her goals and was afraid that many of her dreams might go unfulfilled.
It was like listening to myself thirty years ago. After our talk, Julia and her husband left, and I looked over my personal journals from three decades ago and was reminded of the anxiety I felt when I was Julia’s age: the fear that I would be sentenced to an ordinary life. But looking back over the last three decades, I can say that my life has been truly extraordinary.
And your life can be extraordinary, as well. Not because the plans for our lives are the same, but because the extraordinary God who develops our unique life plans is the same “yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).
As I conclude this book, I want to ask you the all-important question: Have you made the choice to live an extraordinary life? When the time comes for you to leave this earth, either through death or in the whirlwind like Elijah, are you determined to depart this life with a short list of regrets and long list of lives you have impacted for the kingdom of God? If so, consider offering this prayer to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah . . . and you:
Father, thank You for the breath of life and for creating me for a truly unique purpose. Right now, I am committing to myself and to You that I will discover and live out that purpose for which You have gifted me. Keep me from settling for an ordinary life. Today, I’m asking You to give me a laserlike focus as I pursue the truly extraordinary life You have planned for me. I pray my life would glorify You and Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name I pray, Amen.