Ordinary

DAILY BYTE

You have been created to dream of being significant because you are meant to be significant.

God designed you that way.

Your life is meant to make a difference in this world and to leave it somehow a better place. Deeper than our need for food or air or water is our need for meaning - for our lives to count for something.

Now that need could be distorted by our egos. It can get sidetracked into narcissism or egotism. It can be hijacked by our insecurities and fears.

That’s exactly what happened to Jacob. He was born second in a set of twins, and if you read his story carefully you’ll find out that’s exactly how he felt about himself ... second! Jacob was the brother who preferred the company of his mother and enjoyed indoor activities, while the older Esau was a real go–getter. Esau was a big, hairy athlete who loved hunting, a real man’s man.

Esau was also their dad’s favourite. He was the first-born meaning he would inherit a double-portion of their father’s wealth. It is no wonder Jacob felt so secondary in comparison. For goodness sake, we learn from their birth story that Jacob was born clutching onto Esau’s heel, already desperately trying to catch up to and compete with him.

Perhaps this is why Jacob felt the need to cheat to cheat his brother out of his first born rights, and then later out of their father’s final blessing. Cunningly Jacob dressed up in skins so that he could fool his blind father into believing he was the more hirsute Esau. He managed to trick his dad to the extent that when Isaac smelled his clothes he said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of the field.” Now that’s something I truly hope my father has never said about me!

Esau was so angered at being robbed of this blessing, and of being deceived by Jacob yet again, that Jacob was forced to flee for his life. That’s when he had his dream and heard God’s call. So the first lesson about calling that we learn from Jacob’s story is this:

Callings are found in the most ordinary and every day places and in the most ordinary and every day people!

In the middle of a backwater wasteland of a place; a lying, cheating, thieving, jealousy-riddled younger sibling is found and called by God. We don’t have to be world-leaders, world-beaters, extroverted, lavishly gifted and famous for God to call or use us!

If you have ever looked within, and found only weaknesses, fears, deceits, and sins leaving you feeling very ordinary, then let me tell you that you are in excellent company! The Bible is full of ordinary people in ordinary places who end up doing God’s work because they are willing to listen and be obedient and not because they are extravagantly talented.

Sadly, these days the church seems to only use ‘called’ language in conjunction with ministers and preachers. Funnily enough, there are very few priest or minister stories in the Bible – rather the stories are about how God called and used shepherds and kings and wine stewards and goat herders and administrators and tax collectors and mothers and fishermen.

What a wonderful, joyful discovery it is for us to learn that God calls ALL of us, that he created us to want to make a difference and that no matter how weak or inadequate, vain or sinful we may be, God is still more than willing and able to use us.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O Great God, throughout the Bible you used very ordinary people in ordinary places in quite amazing ways. It is an incredible joy to find out that you are willing to use me in some wonderful way as well. Amen.

FOCUS VERSE

Genesis 25:24-27 NIV

When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The fist to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel, so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. The boys grew up, and Esau became a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.