From Ordinary to Extraordinary

“Aram had gone on raids and brought back from the land of Israel a young girl who served Naaman’s wife. ‘If only my master were with the prophet…he would cure him of his skin disease.’” 2 Kings 5:2

This morning it seems that God wants us to more deeply understand how much power we possess in Him no matter what our circumstances might be. This is a story where the leading lady doesn’t get the billing. She is an unnamed prisoner being held captive by powerful people in the Syrian government. What we know about her is one day she was playing at home with her family, and the next day she was snatched from her childhood and became a servant in another person’s family. We should imagine her experience for a moment in light of our childhood. It doesn’t have to be physical kidnapping, but emotional kidnapping can be just as much of a brutal enemy. Who among us has experienced something traumatic that left us reeling? Who has faced situations early in life that became a bedrock of emotional brokenness? I personally cannot relate but I know people who can, and my heart breaks for them. How insignificant this little girl must have felt in a world far from her home. Our precious leading lady as young as she was, teaches us several things about a life grounded in God.

She teaches us that she did not allow her heartbreaking circumstances to define her life. As insignificant as she must have seemed to others, her story shows us that in our insignificance we can have the courage from God to speak up for others. She teaches us that a heart anchored in a God of love can move mountains…can point others to the Healer…can change lives. She teaches us that when we take our eyes off our situation and keep them on God we can be used in mighty ways glorifying Him. Her story exhorts us to look at the interest of those around us instead of our own interest. She did all of this without fanfare…without reward from man…right in the middle of her unwanted circumstances.

This makes my heart soar to know that we of insignificance in the world’s eyes can do significant things when giving God access to our days. ‘In the midst of our most difficult struggles, our loneliness, our feelings of insignificance, our mess (or our mundane) becomes the cornerstone of our message – and He uses it in powerful ways. In these moments when we feel unseen and unworthy, fearful and lonely, broken and defeated, unwanted and uninvited, He sees, He knows, and He understands.’ Just Open the Door, Jen Schmidt, p. 71

We are the leading roles in our own personal story that God is writing, so let's allow our ordinary lives to be used to do great things in the hands of our extraordinary God!