Most people don’t get to live extraordinary lives, at least not the way we tend to think of extraordinary. We look at our jobs and our homes and our friends, and it is all so ordinary. There’s nothing that sets us apart from anyone else, not like those missionaries in Africa witnessing to unreached tribes or that neighbor down the street who always seems to have the best the world can offer. The divide between us and them looks insurmountable sometimes, and perhaps it is.

But the gap between ordinary and extraordinary, on the other hand. . . that’s actually very small, small enough to be bridged by one little word.

Wonder.

Yes, wonder. Remember when you were an Indian on the warpath and the white men you captured wouldn’t cooperate as real captives should? Remember all those tea parties with little princess friends and sometimes even the queen of England? Remember turning stumps to bears and embroidery frames to halos? We all knew what it was to wonder once. The world was real, and it was alive, and we played a very big part in what that world became. But the older we get, the harder it is to hold onto that sense of wonder we had as children. So often, “real” life gets in the way. We can’t just imagine anymore. We have work to do, school to attend, families to feed.

We’re too busy to wonder. It doesn’t happen naturally anymore, not like when we were young. So make wonder a choice. ...continue reading →