No Ordinary Person

I’m not the most compassionate guy. Now I’m not saying that I’m totally insensitive but when God was passing out the compassion gene I think I was off reading somewhere.

Now it’s possible to be too empathetic at times. In fact this is one of the issues that the Psalmist deals with in Psalm 15. I remember having a member of one of my former churches who was compelled after many of my sermons to knock on my door Sunday afternoon to express his “concern” and disappointment over something I had said in a message that day. He would share with me how I had offended this person or that person in my message. By the end of our one-sided conversation I would despair over my calling to be a pastor.

I would go to the “offended” person to ask their forgiveness only to discover that they had not been offended and couldn’t believe that I would think that they had been offended. It soon became clear after a number of these meetings that either the person expressing concern was looking for problems or was busy picking up someone else’s offense. When I finally realized what was going on with this member it made my afternoon scourging (I mean meetings) slightly easier to bear!

That being said - we all need to be careful what and how we say things – we need to season our speech with grace.

Recently I heard about a pastor who spoke on David and how David was no one special, just an ordinary man that God chose to use in an extraordinary way. I fully agreed with this pastor’s assessment of David being an ordinary person, at least from an outward point of view. After all humans look on the outward appearance but God looks at the inside of a person – God sees their heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

This ordinary guy had an extraordinary heart – after all he is considered a man after God’s own heart. (Psalm 27:4)

This ordinary guy was chosen by God for a special task that only he could perform. Just like every one of us has been specially equipped and created to do some extraordinary thing for God, something that only you can accomplish for God in your unique way.

Each of us has been fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) created in the image of God and therefore made and fashioned in the image of perfection. Yes, because of sin we are not a perfect reflection of the God who created us. But for Christ followers we are on the journey to become like Christ as we reflect His glory in our lives both today and someday (when Christ returns) we will do so perfectly.

Ordinary? Well only by the perception of an imperfect human – but in God’s sight –

You are no ordinary person!

Pastor Val.