Back at Christmas of 1986 I was taken by a new song on the new Randy Stonehill album entitled “Out on the Wild Frontier.” It was stuck in my head (sometimes still gets stuck in my head) but more importantly, it felt like a life song for me. It has become a life song for me.

Come where the Big Wind blows
Out on the wild frontier
Follow where it goes
Out on the wild frontier
It’s as close as your heartbeat
It’s as far as your fear
It’s beyond the great horizon
Out on the wild frontier

Doesn’t that sound like living vulnerably which leads to a life of bravery? Life with God is as close as your heartbeat and is as far as your fear.

That led me to come up with a life statement in 1990: “Every other human being has no choice but to bow to their human limitations. Only believers can draw upon God’s supernatural power to live beyond their limits.”

In 2014 I can testify that I have lived beyond my limits as I’ve followed God out onto this wild frontier. That testimony is the story of my life. That testimony fills up lots and lots of days—lots and lots of ordinary days. It has been lots and lots and lots of ordinary days filled with great pain and great joy and more sameness that led to the extraordinary of this picture.

There is a story in this picture that you want to know, right?  It is a good story.

I bring up those important dates because something happened in our culture between then and now. That something can be summed up in the speech that is given when every participant on whatever team “wins” a trophy. The fallout of that has led to a culture where everyone is now looking to be special or extraordinary in any way possible. And too often it is negative attention only because negative attention is the low-hanging fruit and our young adults are so desperate to separate themselves from the norm so they can be special—or extraordinary.

This is a cultural problem. And I fear Wild Frontier living could get mistakenly tangled up in it. Living beyond your limits with God’s supernatural power does not make you extraordinary. It helps you live every day in your ordinary. And your ordinary is important. Facing your every day with ordinary responsibilities with ordinary people for ordinary goals is much more difficult than chasing the dreams you have envisioned for the grand story of your life (out on that wild frontier).

It is living responsibly in this “every day-ness” of ordinary that leads to a life lived beyond your limits. And that simply does not sound extraordinary. Nor does it feel like it will lead to a great story. Nor does it move a crowd. But this is where we need to live. This is your responsibility.

Besides, your big ideas to “change the world” can become ways of actually avoiding the opportunities you have every day. Have you met people like that? Ones who have such grand ideas but can’t keep their power on in their home? Are you like that now? Dreaming and scheming of this great dream God has given you but turning in sub-par work at the job you have now?

Have you read the missionary blogs where you read extraordinary story after extraordinary story? Have you also read the missionary blogs where they share the mundane of the every day. It is in those mundane responsibilities that they find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. Those mundane responsibilities are quite similar to your mundane responsibilities—except you get to have consistent power to your home (thank you, America) (unless you neglect the responsibility of paying that bill).

So I say “three cheers to every day responsibilities and to all of you who do those well.”

Now get back to your “every day-ness” and do that well.  Be brave.