Here is a prophetic word for you. You are not special. You are a regular person with a job and a daily life. You are not a history maker. You have a destiny but it’s a regular one. You will never be a household name. You are not a revolution. You do not hold the line. You won’t win the argument. You won’t be in the ministry but if you find someday that you are, don’t count on being successful. You will find yourself living in the middle of a temporary kingdom and you will plant a garden. The garden you plant will not be an idealized, romanticized kind. It will be the kind where your lack of a green thumb will hound you for the first few years, where the reality of weeds and pests and ill conceived irrigation systems will force you to surrender some of your original assumptions about the universe. You will be abased and you will abound. Make sure you know how to do both. You will have one or two friends. Let them encourage you with candy bars and Mt. Dew. Some of your days will be wonderful but most of them will be boring. Never mind that. There is nothing like a boring day for being alive and thanking God. You will be met with the temptation to long for the good ol’ days, back when God used to show up and do things. Don’t you dare do it. Don’t be afraid of being an exile in a strange season. Economic forces will cause migration. You may migrate. Blessed are you when you no longer have any context for what is happening. Blessed are you when you are drowning in the flood of critical analysis being offered.. Blessed are you when every north star has vaporized. Embrace the dryness of your heart. Embrace your lack of words. Embrace the lack of ecstasy and revelation. Go to the movies. Go fishing. Get some work done. Have some kids. Don’t go into debt (as much as possible.) As far as your salvation goes, your devotion to God counts for absolutely nothing.