Be ordinary in 2012

Have you already set out all your resolutions and "hope for"s for the new year?

Here is a challenge for you...be ordinary. In a world where the best looking and most athletic seem to win...be simple. Where the outspoken and persuasive seem to be heard...be insignificant. Where the prestigious and famous seem to get noticed...be weak.

And here is why: "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. (1 Co 1:27)

I want to be chosen by God. I want to be used in anyway that the Lord chooses. God's Word is full of ordinary things that were used in incredible ways. Here's a few: a staff to part the sea, a sling and stone to kill a giant, a bag lunch to feed thousands, a stutterer to deliver His messages, a young virgin to give birth. All these were insignificant until God chose to use them. In God's hands we aren't insignificant. He will use all that we allow Him to.

Bringing it home...as I type this out, in my lap is a small, stuffed lion that is heading to South Korea this week. (We have been passing it around the house and snuggling it so it will smell like us!) It soon, I hope, will be snuggled by one very snuggly boy that has yet to know the love of a daddy and mommy. And shortly after, I hope, we will be traveling to, ourselves, snuggle this little boy and tell him that he is ours and he is loved. That is extraordinary!

In our lives when we are willing to answer "yes" to the Lord's calling...remarkable things happen. They certainly don't occur because we in and of ourselves are anything. We just need to be willing, to be obedient in the big and small, to lay down our lives so that He can use our ordinary, simple, insignificant and weak parts in extraordinary ways.

Happy New Year!