second thing that ruined me for the ordinary

The second thing that ruined me for the ordinary was that time I prayed and heard Jesus.  Not audibly.  But I heard Him, which I’m sure makes me sound crazy to some of you.  

Let me explain.

I had been going to church for years.  I believe in God, and I believe Jesus is His Son.  I knew the Bible was important, and that prayer could help with stuff in your life. That’s what I knew at that point.

It was February 2006, and I was living in a tiny little farming town in Oxford, New Zealand.  I was part of a school, a Christian school focused on Knowing God and Making Him Known.  Basically learning what it meant to Know Jesus, and living your life in such a way that it’s evident that you know Him.

Within the school we had been split up into teams of three. We were going to be spending a week serving the people of New Zealand, and we were supposed to get together in our teams to pray about where we should go.  Ask God where He wanted us to be.  I had a hard time with this one. I knew prayer was important, and I knew how to ask -  but I had never heard God answer.

As my teammates and I sat praying, I sat silently listening.  Trying to listen, anyway.  But all I could think it my head was Lyttleton Peninsula.  I was SO annoyed with myself because I just wanted to engage with my teammates in prayer.  I wanted to contribute. Instead, it seemed I was making things up in my head.

We finished praying and they asked what I heard.  I wasn’t going to say anything, but they got it out of me.  I told them I wasn’t really paying attention because I couldn’t stop thinking about Lyttleton Peninsula. I had looked on the map, but it wasn’t a place in New Zealand.  I was embarrassed, and ready to go back to my room.  Just as I was about to get up a friend of ours walked in, who had grown up in the area.  We asked her if Lyttleton Peninsula was a place,

“No.  There’s no Lyttleton Peninsula,”  I looked at the ground as my face turned red, “But there is a city called Lyttleton on the Banks Peninsula.  It’s about 45 minutes from here.”

I sat up straight looking at my friends.  That was seriously God speaking to me? I thought I was just distracting myself! We all began laughing, knowing that must be on the list of places to go serve.  

That highlighted area - that's where we made it the week we served people in New Zealand.  The thing is, we didn't have any money, or a car, or a place to stay.  We would pray every day and ask God where we should go - and now that I knew I could hear Him - it was fun.

We hitchhiked that entire way. We met incredible people! God provided every meal we needed, a warm place to sleep at night, and endless stories. 

In the very top right corner of that highlighted area is Lyttleton.  On the tiny Bank Peninsula just outside of Christchurch, New Zealand. 

To this day I have no clue what our purpose was there.  In fact - that night in Lyttleton was one of the craziest nights of my life.  Maybe that will be the third thing that ruined me for the ordinary...

But it’s things like this that make me realize - my life isn’t ordinary.  And I love it.