If I want a steaming hot tea to greet my morning but could not get, it is normal for me to cope with a warm serving in the absence of the hot I requested for. The warm will not accurately substitute for the hot, but it will be preferred. That is the normal thing.
Going by God’s address to the Laodicean Church, in the absence of a hot serving, God would have split out the warm. He would have it served in any form, except warm.
‘I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.’ Revelation 3:15-16 (KJV)
To think that God would even take a preference for coldness shows that he has zero tolerance for the lukewarm average life. Although in the above, coldness here is positive; cold refreshing mountain streams (The Expanded Bible).
All of Jesus’ actions push my thinking. He gets at me hundred percent of the time. His actions intoxicate my mind beyond the regular, far above any motivational inducement or psyching.
First, he converted water into wine. That is impressive. But what inspired me the most is that even the governor of the feast testified to the uniqueness of Jesus’ product;
‘but thou has kept the good wine until now’ John 2:10 (KJV)
The governor had tasted the first wine that got used up, but now he confessed to a higher quality found in Jesus’ manufactured wine. He did not just convert to one of those kinds of wine; he converted to an exotic prime quality wine that was quickly noticeable by the governor. That is excellence, not average.
One day, there was a need to feed about 5000 men with only limited resources; by a supernatural means, my Lord did it. It was miraculous and applaudable that 5000 men (not counting the women and children) were fed from a single purse. However, beyond that, they had more- 12 baskets of excess. These 12 baskets excess came after they were filled(John 6:12). I thought the normal goal was to get them filled, but alas, after they were filled, he still gave them 12 baskets in excess.
In the incidence of the feeding of the 4000, Mark 8:8 says
‘so they did eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets’. (KJV)
My inspiration, among other things is the exceeding, jaw-breaking, out-of-the-norm, far-reaching level of God’s excellence displayed in Jesus. Enough could just have done it, but he did far more than enough. That is exceeding, not normal.
I have concluded and rightly done so, that Jesus is not normal. He is not average. He breaks the norm all the time, he has a new definition of lifestyle; exceeding your expectation, off shooting the status quo, living abundantly. As Christians, we are not expected to live just a good life, the call is to live a life far exceeding in quality and excellence.
“I have come that they might have life and that they may have it in abundance” Did you read that well? The purpose of Jesus is not just for us to be redeemed and then narrowly get by life. We are supposed to be FULL of life.
We are not just supposed to get by at our places of work; we are supposed to be exceedingly effective. We are not supposed to pass through class; we are supposed to be respectably brilliant. We are not supposed to get by as husbands; we are supposed to be the best at it. We are not just supposed to be neighbors; we are supposed to love contagiously. We are not supposed to go to church; we are supposed to be devotedly doing so. That is the life of Christ, a full life.
You see, it is important to know that the Lord did not just pay expensive price just for you to get by life; we are supposed to live FULL.