Dear Friends,
Yesterday in church we studied Jesus’ calling of his 12 disciples
(Matthew 10:1-4). In this passage Matthew simply lists the names of those
men that Jesus called and released for ministry. There was nothing significant
or noteworthy about any of those he called. They were common, ordinary,
everyday people: a couple of fishermen, two brothers with explosive tempers, a
skeptic, a doubter, a rip off tax collector, and a political rabble rouser were
among those He chose-certainly not the kind of people we would have selected to
change the world.
It is not always the gifted or the extraordinary people that God
calls and uses to make a difference in the Kingdom. Most of the time He chooses
the least likely, the common, ordinary people with little in their resume to
suggest they would be fit for much of anything.
And when the Lord sees you and I, He sees us just as He saw those
disciples, and He still he says, “I can use you.”
Over the years God has used ordinary people to do extraordinary
things for the Kingdom. I thought of the story I copied from a book by speaker
and author Tony Campolo about a camp counseling experience.
Tony relates how he was asked to be a counselor in a junior high
camp. He says, “Everybody ought to be a counselor in the junior high camp- just
once. A junior high kid’s concept of a good time is picking on people. And in
this particular case, at this particular camp, there was a little boy who was
suffering from cerebral palsy. His name was Billy. And they picked on him.”
“Oh, they picked on him. As he walked across the camp with his
uncoordinated body they would line up and imitate his grotesque movements”.
“I watched him one day as he was asking for directions. ‘Which……
way is…… the……… craft shop? he stammered, his mouth contorting.’”
“And the boys mimicked in that same awful stammer.”
‘It’s……over……there…. Billy.’ And then they laughed at him.” I was
irate.”
“But my furor reached its highest pitch when on Thursday morning
when it was Billy’s cabin’s turn to give devotions. I wondered what would
happen because they had appointed Billy to be the speaker. I knew that they
just wanted to get him up there to make fun of him. As he dragged his way to
the front, you could hear the giggles rolling over the crowd. It took little
Billy almost 5 minutes to say 7 words.”
‘Jesus……. loves……. Me…… and…… I……. love Jesus.’
“When he finished, there was dead silence. I looked over my
shoulder and saw junior high boys bawling all over the place. A revival broke
out in that camp after Billy’s short testimony. And as I travel all over the
world, I find missionaries and preachers who say, ‘Remember Me’? I was
converted at the junior high camp.’”
“We counselors had tried everything to get those kids interested in
Jesus. We even imported baseball players whose batting averages had gone up
since they had started praying. But Jesus chose not to use the superstars. He
chose a kid with cerebral palsy to break the spirits of the haughty. He’s that
kind of God.”
“Today we become used to hearing testimonies of great athletes
whose lives have been turned around because of Christ, but how often do we hear
the testimony from people like the Billy’s of this world. We are used to the
super stars sharing their faith, but someone like Billy? What does he
have to offer the world? He certainly is not the kind of person that the world
would consider influential, or the kind of person whose life would impress many
who would see or hear him. But God used him to remind us of a very valuable
lesson.”
As I reflect on this story, I am reminded of Paul’s message to the
Corinthians church in which he states, “Brothers, consider your calling: not
many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble
birth. Instead, God has chosen the world’s foolish things to shame the wise,
and God has chosen the world’s weak things to shame the strong. God has chosen
the world’s insignificant and despised things- the things viewed as nothing- so
he might bring to nothing the things that are viewed as something, so that no
one can boast in his presence” (1 Corinthians 1: 26-29).
Yes, you may have an anger issue like James or John, or a skeptic
like Nathaniel, or a doubter like Thomas. You may be someone like Andrew, often
in the background unnoticed and overshadowed by his brother, or like Peter who
is always talking before thinking. You might even be a violent
revolutionist like Simon. But whoever you are, and regardless of your
background or pedigree, God can use you if you will offer Him whatever you
have.
And when we do this, we will discover that He can turn the
ordinary into the extraordinary.
Yours in faith and friendship,
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