Now that I've had this site for almost five months, I decided it was high time to post.

I dug up something that I wrote a year or so ago because it's a truth that I desperately need to be reminded of again in my life right now. Maybe I'm the only one who struggles with this, but then again, maybe not...

God uses ordinary people.

Each of us has a deep down desire to be or do something great. I wanted to be at the top. I wanted people to think of me as intelligent, beautiful, fun. On a spiritual level, I wanted to be heralded as wise and Godly. I wanted God to use me in great ways. Great in my mind was in the limelight, ministering to and blessing people in ways that caused people to want to be a great, spiritual Christian like me. My desire was to impact lives and see people grow in their faith, but an underlying current was to be applauded for my spiritual service and the impact that I was making. Somehow I thought that if I could do something great for God that He (and others) would view me as great. To really serve God meant that the multitudes must notice and see what I was doing.

Yet despite my efforts, I never quite measured up. As I looked around at others, they were the ones who seemed to be getting the applause and the recognition. They were the ones picked for this or that. They were held up as the examples to follow. They were applauded for their hard work and service. I was just a behind-the-scenes, ordinary person.

I felt like the “left over”—you know, the one that gets overlooked, forgotten, and disregarded. I thought that if I did certain things for God, He would bless me in the ways that I viewed as blessings.

To compound the feelings of inferiority, while all of my other friends were getting married and starting families, I was not. While others were moving on and doing great and exciting things, I was just sitting at a desk day after day. I felt overlooked by God and by man.

Then one day the truth was turned on in my heart like a light bulb: “God uses ordinary people.” I suddenly realized that I needed to stop trying to be great so that God would use me. He chooses to use those through whom He receives the glory and praise. What does an ordinary person look like? Well, just kind of ordinary. You probably pass by them every day without even noticing—at work, at the grocery store, at church, at school. They don’t really stand out for any merit of their own. But when the Holy Spirit is empowering their lives, He is the One who stands out. 

Was I willing to “settle” for being ordinary? Would I be content to be a “nobody”? But ironically, it’s only when we are “nobody” that we are actually in a position where God can use us. It’s when we are going about our daily lives, faithfully doing the will of God that He uses our lives in ways we did not expect. Think back to the ones who have impacted you the most. Yes, some of them may have been the “up front” kind of people, but probably many were the faithful behind the scenes saints.

When I’m tempted to feel jealous or overlooked, I need to remind myself of the simple truth that God uses ordinary people. My heart’s desire is to be used by God. Will I settle for being “ordinary” so that through me Christ can be extraordinary?

I Corinthians 1:26–31

"For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord."