By Tony Martin
Associate Editor
Some folks are perfectly content with routine, to be ordinary. Some folks find routine stifling. My seminary roomie, Tommy Phelps, cracked me up when talking about this. We shared the same part-time job driving school buses for the Fort Worth Independent School District.
This was Tommy’s litany: “Get up. Go to the bus barn. Pick up the bus. Pick up the kids. Take them to school. Go to school. Pick up the bus. Pick up the kids. Take them home. Go home. Eat and study. Go to bed. Get up. Go to the bus barn. Pick up the bus…”
You get the picture. Our lives can be like laying pipe, or working as a short order cook – lather, rinse, repeat.
This isn’t awful, mind you, but is there more to all this than just doing routine tasks? Are we missing something? Here’s where I think the temptation comes. I think that often, Satan tempts us to be ordinary.
We aren’t awful people. We don’t embrace heinous sins. We are middle-of-the-packers. Good, moral people, churchgoing people, and in the grand cosmic scheme of things, we are honorable Christians — but Satan wants to persuade you that you’re nothing special. He’s really good at that.
We can feel barren. We think, “Is this IT?” It’s not that we seek earthly acclaim. We like being appreciated, but that doesn’t drive us. We just want to feel, I dunno, significant. Not just to be ordinary.
This got me to thinking about any number of biblical personalities. Many times, they were ordinary folks caught up in extraordinary circumstance or, more tellingly, they found themselves in God’s hands. They were made to be significant.
Take the twelve disciples. If I were Jesus, and I was going to select men who would ultimately be responsible for seeing that this fledgling faith not only survived but flourished, I don’t think they would have been the group I’d go with.
I would have scoured the Chamber of Commerce literature, found myself the best and brightest, and begun recruiting. I’d go after professional people, people with drive and ambition, people who were blue-chip prospects. I’d want sharp people. I wouldn’t want to have guys who liked to be ordinary.
Jesus did no such thing. After an evening of prayer (key point there), he went after the most unlikely of candidates. Fishermen. Tax collectors. Commoners. He didn’t have a job description drawn up for each of them. His recruiting speech was pretty basic: “Follow me.”
Doggone if they didn’t respond to that simple summons. They followed, without trying to straighten themselves out first. They could have remained in their familiar surroundings and predictable jobs. Instead, they left everything behind – jobs, homes, family, friends. Jesus called twelve, graduated eleven, and those knuckleheads turned the world upside down.
Don’t miss this. How like us. In the middle of our routines, when we go about our daily affairs with familiar people, God still reaches out to us. He wants to train us, equip us, change our attitudes, and renovate our souls. In other words, we are NOT to be ordinary.
You may think you are overlooked by everyone else, but you have been handpicked by God. You’re building a legacy. It may not make you any more significant in the eyes of the world than a potted plant, but you’re shaping the kingdom of God. Is that ordinary? Hardly.
I sure hope that helps you see your routines in a whole different light. Ancient script from 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NLT) is timely: “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”
Feel special. Because you are.
Editor’s Note: Opinions expressed on this website are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, The Baptist Record, nor the publication’s Advisory Committee. The author may be contacted at tmartin@mbcb.org.
