IT'S JUST ME

Ordinary.  That's me.  Nothing special.  The only time I'm 'out-standing-in-my-field' is when I'm out standing in a field!  😂

Really!  I'm the baby of my family.  When my siblings get together to make decisions, what I think doesn't matter.  

Embarrassingly, I'll admit:  I've started races and dropped out.  

I lost an opportunity to study for a Master of Social Work degree at Pitt back in 1988.  When I asked why I wasn't accepted, the proctor explained with my records in his hand:  "Harold, you had excellent grades in your Master's program at Pittsburgh Theological.  You had very good grades in your B.A. at Roberts Wesleyan College.  But the competition for admission was vigorous and we had to go back to high school records to make our decision.  In high school, you had 28 C's."  

28 C's?  Really?  I didn't realize that my lack of motivation back then was going to impact my future.

I haven't set many records.  No one writes books about me.  I haven't grown the biggest churches.  I haven't accrued tremendous wealth.  I've never driven fancy cars.  I'm about as ordinary as you can get!

I just finished reading I Samuel 17.

It's an exposition of ordinary.  

Eugene Peterson writes in Living The Message, [pp.315-316]:

It is highly significant...that this David story...features an ordinary person.  David was..."just" a lay person.  His father omitted to present him to Samuel - it probably didn't even occur to him.  To his brothers he was a nonentity.  Worse, as we learn from his genealogy family tree, he had bad blood in his family tree, hated and despised Moabite blood.

The choice of David, the runt and the shepherd, to be the anointed, to be a sign and representative of God's working presence in human life and history, is surely intended to convey a sense of inclusion to all ordinary men and women, the plain folk, the undistinguished in the eyes of their neighbors, those lacking social status and peer recognition.  Which is to say, the overwhelming majority of all who have lived on this old planet earth.  Election into God's purposes is not by popular vote.  Election into God's purposes is not based on proven ability or potential promise...

So it is of considerable moment to realize that the centerfold account in scripture of a human being living by faith comes in the shape of a lay person.  David was not ordained into the priesthood.  He was not called, as we say, "to the ministry."  He was "just" a lay person, haqqaton.  But there is not a hint in the narrative that his status is evidence of inadequacy.  This is humanity, burgeoning and vital, bold and extravagant, skillful and inventive in love and prayer and work.

Ahhh...I'm feeling better about myself already! 

“Our frailties and fears are no obstacle for the all-powerful God.  He delights in using clay pots (II Corinthians 4:6-12), chipped and cracked, so that his “all-surpassing power” might be displayed in our human weakness.”    [TitW, 11/12/07, p.19]

 “God loves using us before we feel like we’re ready.”  [Wild Goose Chase, Mark Batterson, p.81]

Mark 1:16-18  (TM)
Passing along the beach of Lake Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew net-fishing.  Fishing was their regular work.  Jesus said to them, "Come with me.  I'll make a new kind of fisherman out of you.  I'll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass."  They didn't ask questions,  They dropped their nets and followed.

Now, that's what I'm talking about!  Stepping out of the ordinary into the extraordinary plans of a great and awesome God!  I wonder what He has planned for us today?