When my soul is hungry for deep help from God; when I am blank before the word of God, and ache for someone to show me the greatness and glory of Christ; when I feel a longing for heaven, and desire a soul-brother who shares this passion; when I am full of fresh fruit from God’s word, and yearn for a fellow lover of Scripture, I do not look for a “regular guy.”

And since that’s not what my soul longs for, it’s not what I long to be.

In my deepest need or deepest joy, I do not say, “What I need now is a regular guy.” At the best and worst moments of my life I do not say, “What my soul needs just now is a regular guy.”

I don’t care if he’s never seen a movie or driven a car or owned a cell phone.

What my soul needs is not the ordinary. I’ve got plenty of that inside of me already. I don’t need more “regular.” I need something irregular, unusual. Something unusually wise and deep and strong and pure and great. Something this world does not offer. I long for a person who has seen God and been forever put out of sync with this world. I long for a person who can tell me what God has shown him — something that is really there in the word of God, something that few see, something solid and glorious.

My perplexed and longing soul needs something more than a “regular guy.” It needs one

* who loves God with all his heart and soul and mind and strength (Matthew 22:37),

* who knows he is already seated with Christ in heaven (Colossians 3:3),

* who sets his mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2),

* who is not conformed to this world, but has a new way of thinking (Romans 12:2),

* who does not love this world (1 John 2:15),

* who flees youthful passions and pursues righteousness, faith, love, and peace (2 Timothy 2:22),

* who seeks understanding like silver and searches for it as for hidden treasures (Proverbs 2:4),

* who does not account his life of any value nor as precious to himself (Acts 20:24),

* who is filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18),

* who prays without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17),

* who dies to himself every day (1 Corinthians 15:31, Luke 9:24), and

* who lives in joy, serving our Lord (Romans 12:11).

“O Lord, have mercy on us! Stun us. Sculpt us with your hammer and chisel till we look and live like holy, helpful, happy aliens. Guard us from the aspiration of regular worldly cool. Put us out of sync with every secular and religious sin. Get us ready to meet you without fear, without shame, without surprise. Amen.”

From a devotional by John Piper