By Chuck (Sharing Compassion)
While pondering the theme for this week's article, God actually placed it on my heart at our church service last Sunday morning. We have been talking about how God is able to accomplish many things and that day's message was on how God uses ordinary people.
I know we tend to look at the people mentioned in the Bible as special or "a cut above." In fact there is a children's bible that actually calls them Superheroes. Probably this is why we often feel we can never measure up and do God's work. Amazingly enough though all of the "heroes" of the Bible were flawed in one way or another. Lets look at some examples:
- Abraham was too old to father a nation;
- Moses was a murderer and had a speech problem;
- Jacob was a deceiver;
- Joseph a dreamer;
- Rahab a prostitute;
- David was an adulterer and a murderer;
- Peter denied Christ; and
- Paul was a persecutor of the Christians.
Get the picture? All of these were ordinary people the same as you and me. We may not be murderers or adulterers but in our minds we tend to think we are imperfect and unable to be used by God. If we look at these examples could we be any further from the truth? God uses the ordinary in order to be Glorified. Plain and simple that is how His Kingdom works. We may stumble but through Christ all things work for His glory. The Newsboys have a song called "In the Hands of God." Part of the lyrics go: In the hands of God we stand tall, Hands that are mighty to deliver. How true is that. When we allow ourselve to be used by God we can accomplish so much even when we are normal and ordinary.
So how does this relate to Compassion? Simply put the entire ministry really is based on using ordinary people to make a difference in a child's life. In the field the child projects are run by the local church and local parishoners. On the sponsor end we are just ordinary people that have made a decision to impact a child's life in the name of Jesus.
I am often suprised sometimes by people who put off sponsoring because they feel inadequate. Talking to them at a table or event they just feel that it is something that they are not qualified for. It is not the money but rather they are afraid to make the commitment. Sadly a child may not get sponsored at that moment but even more sad is the fact that someone will not trust God to use them in a powerful way.
I can testify that as ordinary as we think we are, the truth is that we are making a big impact in that child's life through our letters and sponsorship. Amazingly enough those children tend to look at us as heroes or rank us up there with some of the great people of the Bible. So really we are back at the beginning of this article except for the fact that from the beginning of time God has used the ordinary for the extraordinary.
Chuck is a Christian husband and father who has served in part-time ministry for 17 years, and is a deacon at his church. He has been a Compassion International Advocate/Area Coordinator for several years, finding families to sponsor Compassion children throughout the world. His passion is letting others know how important it is to release children from poverty. Be sure to check out his blog, Sharing Compassion.