Very Average

This week my we got to have another sonogram and see our beautiful new daughter (although she kept her hands in front of her face the entire time).  My wife was measuring small for this stage in the pregnancy, and although she is a small person and our doctor wasn’t worried, standard operating procedure at this point is to have a sonogram to investigate.  Based on that sonogram, however, we learned that the baby’s size is just fine; she is in the 50^th percentile.  The nurse running the sonogram commented that the baby was “very average.”

This struck me as funny.  Can something be “very average”?  Doesn’t the nature of being “average” suggest that you aren’t “very” anything.  It’s like when we say something is “very necessary.”  It’s either necessary or it’s unnecessary.  You’re not getting any more necessary than necessary.

I think that all too often in our lives and in our faith, we settle for average because we believe it to be “very average.”  We say to ourselves, “well, I know this isn’t the level of service that God expects from me, but I’m doing better than most of the other people I know, so I’m not just average I’m very average.”  As a result, we begin to settle for less that God’s best in our lives.  We think that this will lead us into a “very average” life, but the truth is, over time, living at less than God’s best for us leads to disappointment and bitterness.  The more we settle, the more we miss out on.  Choose today to be more than average and to experience purpose that comes from living up to your calling.

It’s very necessary.