Saturday, February 20, 2016

The Ordinary for the Extraordinary

I have a confession to make: I have an evil villain against me. He's constantly waiting at every corner and never fails to show up at every event. He cowers over me and follows my stumbling steps throughout the day. His name is Perfection. 

Perhaps you've met Perfection before. He doesn't like your meager ideas. He whispers in your ear that you'll never be enough, and what you're doing has no purpose. We often go through our lives believing or chasing the perfect idea of what we think in our minds life ought to be. We create this perfect image of ourselves, with a cookie-cut life and path so direct that if anything were to come close and steer it's course... we'd in a sense abandon ship.

A particular story of a certain ordinary man who achieved the extraordinary comes into mind. This man was chosen for a very important job by God himself, but his beginning will surprise you. 

His name was Moses. Moses was born to a Hebrew family living in Egypt during a time when the children of Israel were being mistreated and killed.
     
But God's plan for Moses was far greater than anyone would imagine. Moses grew up among the Egyptians and when the time came, God revealed His plan to Moses. 

You would think if God comes and speaks to you to tell you His grand plan for your life, surely you would respond with excitement "Yes Lord! I am here and will do as you say!!" But that was not the response Moses gave. 
     
Moses went on to to explain that he was not made for this mission. He gave every excuse possible to try to convince God that surely He had made a mistake. He wasn't qualified to speak to the Egyptians, he didn't have the courage. 

But the one thing Moses failed to see as many of us do as well, is that God doesn't make mistakes.  
     
We like Moses only see what we are in this present moment. But God... He sees all that we are to become exactly like He created us to be. We let Perfection dictate our little sparks of ideas and fear tell us we aren't cut out for that type of purpose. We let the idea of the "right" way keep us from doing it our best way. 
     
But isn't it funny how God doesn't need someone that fits the standard of what the world would perceive to be adequate? He doesn't ask us for a concise resumé filled with our qualifications of why we do or don't fit a specific role. 

Instead, God just asks us to show up. He asks us to come as we are, stumbling over our two feet, bruised with our loads of baggage, and mispronounced words and all.
     
We often perceive courage to be the absence of fear. But courage is that place where you come with all that you have, lay it out before God and let Him take it from there.

Courage is that place where you surrender yourself and all that you are, and trust that God already knew where He would take you. 
     
Dear friend in times of doubt, and when Perfection leans over your shoulder to tell you you're just ordinary and not good enough... remember who YOU are. God chose you and made you with every little quirk and trait for a purpose. A purpose that can only be accomplished by you. 

Don't hold back from who you are and what you were made to be. And may you never forget that God uses imperfections and the ordinary to do the beautiful, and seemingly impossible extraordinary things in life.  

And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt you say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me unto you. // Exodus 3:14

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