Ordinary people

Ordinary people.
“He chose Moses. He Chose David. He chose Peter and Paul. He chose me. He chose you. Common people. Simple people. People with nothing special about them. Nothing special except they said yes. They obeyed. They took the task God assigned them and they did it. They didn’t always do it well, but they said yes, and with His help they did it anyway.
Extraordinary tasks.

Moses was a murderer, a shepherd just trying to mind his own business and move on with his life when he watched a bush catch on fire and not burn up. God wanted to use him to lead His chosen people out of Egypt. Moses was human and told God that He had the wrong guy. Moses wasn’t an eloquent speaker, and he was afraid. But he said yes, and God used him anyway. The Red Sea parted, bread fell from Heaven, and people believed.”

– Katie Davis (Kisses From Katie)

Katie states this truth in such a simple yet profound way. I am so convinced that God can use any person, any circumstance, any trial in life to ultimately reveal His glory.

He pursues the lost, the least, and the last.

I always wonder to myself, what would it have been like to have know Jesus, when He walked the earth? That’s when a big smile always comes across my face… I bet He gave some pretty good hugs, the kind of hug you just fall into and can’t seem to let go of. The kind of hug that reassures you, that says “You are loved, you are chosen, you are my son, you are my daughter.” I bet His smile and laugh was so contagious that everyone around Him had to smile and laugh back. I bet He was that kind of person you can’t put your finger on what is so different, so real, so joyous, so genuine about Him, that you just keep coming back to Him.

Then I realize, the same Jesus that believed in, and called on these ordinary people, that healed the broken at heart in the bible, that saved the world from our sin as His love poured out on the cross, is the same Jesus that lives inside you and I today.

Jesus took time for individuals. He saw the need, the hurt, the heart in every soul. Jesus cared for every life. And I truly believe, we are called to care about our neighbor, care about the person we run into at the gas station, care about and forgive the person that hurt us, care about whoever God places in our lives.

I know this isn’t always easy. It’s something I often struggle with, but I know, it’s what we are called to do. And I’m always reminded, when I least deserved Christ love and forgiveness, He loved and forgave me. So when I feel people don’t deserve my love or forgiveness I know I am such a fool to think in such a way.
Colossians 3:12-14 –
“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

So I’d like to end with this passage from the foreword in one of my favorite books, Kisses From Katie:

“People who want to make a difference in the world usually do it, in one way or another. And I’ve noticed something about people who make a difference in the world:
They hold the unshakable conviction that individuals are extremely important, that every life matters. They get excited over one smile, they are willing to feed one stomach, educate one mind, treat one wound.. these people bring change in ways most people will never read about or applaud.”

-Beth Clark (Kisses From Katie)