Ordinary to Extraordinary

Psalm 23:6 “Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.”

God is present with us 24/7.  There is never a moment from a person’s birth to death when God is not there.  Even before we acknowledged him in our lives he was there.  God, however, desires more than to just be there with us.  He desires to participate in every area of our lives.  He desires to share in the decision making, goal setting, every ordinary event of life. 

When we allow God to participate in the ordinariness of our life, it becomes extraordinary.  Let’s look at some examples from scripture where God partnered with ordinary people to do extraordinary things. 

David:  1 Samuel 17 tells us the extraordinary story of David and Goliath.  This story begins with an ordinary event.  1 Samuel 17: 12-15, 17-23, Now David was the son of a man named Jesse, an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in the land of Judah. Jesse was an old man at that time, and he had eight sons. Jesse’s three oldest sons—Eliab, Abinadab, and Shimea—had already joined Saul’s army to fight the Philistines. David was the youngest son. David’s three oldest brothers stayed with Saul’s army, but David went back and forth so he could help his father with the sheep in Bethlehem.   One day Jesse said to David, “Take this basket of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread, and carry them quickly to your brothers. And give these ten cuts of cheese to their captain. See how your brothers are getting along, and bring back a report on how they are doing.” David’s brothers were with Saul and the Israelite army at the valley of Elah, fighting against the Philistines. So David left the sheep with another shepherd and set out early the next morning with the gifts, as Jesse had directed him. He arrived at the camp just as the Israelite army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries. Soon the Israelite and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army. David left his things with the keeper of supplies and hurried out to the ranks to greet his brothers. As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, came out from the Philistine ranks. Then David heard him shout his usual taunt to the army of Israel.

We see here that Jesse sent David to take provisions to his brothers who were serving in the army.  In those days it was common for the families of the soldiers to support the soldiers while they served in the army.  David was doing what many other boys of his day were doing, taking provisions to older brothers in the army. 

The story continues… 1 Samuel 17: 24-25, 32-37, 40-50 As soon as the Israelite army saw him, they began to run away in fright. “Have you seen the giant?” the men asked. “He comes out each day to defy Israel. The king has offered a huge reward to anyone who kills him. He will give that man one of his daughters for a wife, and the man’s entire family will be exempted from paying taxes!” “Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”  “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.” But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!” Saul finally consented. “All right, go ahead,” he said. “And may the Lord be with you!” So David took them off again. He picked up five smooth stones from a stream and put them into his shepherd’s bag. Then, armed only with his shepherd’s staff and sling, he started across the valley to fight the Philistine. Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle, and he will give you to us!” As Goliath moved closer to attack, David quickly ran out to meet him. Reaching into his shepherd’s bag and taking out a stone, he hurled it with his sling and hit the Philistine in the forehead. The stone sank in, and Goliath stumbled and fell face down on the ground.  So David triumphed over the Philistine with only a sling and a stone, for he had no sword. Then David ran over and pulled Goliath’s sword from its sheath. David used it to kill him and cut off his head.  

David allowed God to work through him to turn an ordinary event (delivering food to his brothers) into an extraordinary event (a boy killing the champion of the Philistine army.)

Time will not permit me to expound but here are three more examples of men and women who allowed God to enter their ordinary lives and the result was extraordinary! 

Gideon: Judges 6-7 (threshing wheat [ordinary], called by God, lead an army of 300 men to conquer the entire Midianite army [extraordinary].)

Rahab: Joshua 2 (living in Jericho as a harlot [so wrong, but ordinary], hides Israelite spies, is saved from destruction when Jericho falls, is recorded in the lineage of Christ [extraordinary].)

Peter and John: Acts 4 (going to the temple [ordinary], see a lame man begging, tell him to get up and walk in Jesus name, and he does [extraordinary].)

If we invited Jesus into the ordinary things in our life, what extraordinary things could happen?  How can an ordinary trip to the store for last minute groceries become extraordinary?  Or playing basketball in the driveway with your kids? Working out at the gym?  God wants to transform our ordinary into his extraordinary!