Are You Becoming Ordinary?

In Florence, Italy, every day people from all over the world pay money and wait in line to see a 14-foot marble statue, shaped nearly 500 years ago by the 26-year-old hand of Michelangelo.

This colossus depicts the spirit of David. The handiwork of Michelangelo, as great as it is, falls short of the handiwork of God in the flesh and blood David portrayed in the Old Testament text.

Ask the average person what he or she remembers about David and they will probably recall his greatest achievement – victory over Goliath, the Philistine giant.

Because David chose to be who he was created to be, he stood head and shoulders above his enemies and led his peers with great skill.

As you follow the storyline, you read that Saul tried to set David up with his heavy armor. But David, knowing and trusting his own training and tools, refused to be ordinary. “I can’t fight with this stuff. I know who I am and I trust the one who made me.”

Leo Buscalglia said, “the easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.”

David chose his own simple garments. Armed with his trusted weapon, he walked into the extraordinary moment for which he was created.

Step toward the extraordinary:

1. Discover who you are in solitude. Never waste seasons of loneliness. David did his quiet work of discovery out in the fields. God became David’s companion, and in the solitude he became sensitive to the things of God. That is where and when David learned the ability to see as God sees.
2. Develop your character in isolation. David maximized his ordinary moments of life to develop his character. The sheep were his only audience. They would not tell anyone about his performance. In the face of danger, he could just as well have been lazy – but he wasn’t. Who you are when it doesn’t count will be who you are when it does.
3. Decide your course of action before you have to. David wasn’t going to the battle line to fight. He was simply sent by his father to bring his brothers some food and make sure they were alright. It was a day just like the previous one. But that day would be Goliath’s last day and David’s first day in his extraordinary life.

In reality, we can all be extraordinary. The key is to realize that being extraordinary is a personal choice. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or financially struggling, whether you’re male or female, whether you’re old or young, or whether you fit into any other categories. Choose to be extraordinary.