Wow! You're SO lucky!

Over the last few years I have lived a less than ordinary life. I have spent a lot of time seeing the world, studying/living in different countries, making extremely diverse friendships and connections, and finding myself facing incredible opportunities. If I had a dime for every time I heard, "Wow! You're SO lucky!" I'd be a whole lot richer than my bank account currently shows.

Although the typical response to my life seems reasonable enough, I am more and more convinced that luck has nothing to do with it. In fact, reflecting on my life and who I am, it seems to me that anyone could experience life the way I do. Think about it: on paper I am nothing extraordinary. I have no sustainable career/income, no life savings, and no great title or position to my name. I could very easily convince myself that I am entirely ordinary. Unexceptional. A nobody. It is just a matter of choice.

How is it, then, that a little "nobody" like me could be considered so exceptionally "lucky"? What is the choice that leads me there?

The more I reflect, the more I see a pattern surface. God opens doors in my life--in all of our lives--and I/we can choose whether or not to walk through them with steps of faith. I think that sometimes it is easy to look from afar and say, "Well that could never work for me" or "If only I could do that," but the truth is that we all have the option of saying "yes" when out of the ordinary experiences/opportunities are placed before us.

One step through the door, God sweeps you off your feet and places you on a path far more glorious than anything you could plan out for yourself because it does not come from you. His ways, plans, and vision of possibility are so much greater than what we could ever see or imagine. It just takes that initial step of faith (which is admittedly scary and feels so uncertain), and then the multiplication of blessings and opportunities begins. I say multiplication because I have found that the more often I take a step of faith into an unknown realm in my life, God continues me moving forward revealing each step of the way his blessing and glory which otherwise would go undetected by my mortal eyes.

This theory makes a lot of sense looking at how God has worked in history. Joseph went from a state of abandonment and slavery to finding favor and then ruling with Egypt's pharaoh. Nehemiah found himself in the privileged position of cup-bearer to the Persian king (Israel's enemy), through which God led him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and bring people back to Him. Daniel found favor with the king of Babylon and was protected and promoted in spite of his "unacceptable" and dangerous faith. Notice a pattern? These heroes all went from a lowly, hopeless place according to what the human eye can see to finding favor with people in high places, through which God worked wonders for his glory. Why should it be any different for us?

So I am left pondering what it really means to win favor with God and men when faith, not sight determines the steps I take. I ponder what the world would look like if we truly believed that God wants to and can use ordinary men to do extraordinary things. Dare I consider that all of my "luck" is actually part of such a design?

I choose yes. But I also dare to believe that I am not alone in this process. I dare to believe that there's a whole world and life of blessing and riches waiting for us all. All it takes is a choice and a step of faith, which is in its definition "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).