Ordinary People

For much of my life as a Jesus-follower, I've prayed in the following way: "Lord, what is your will for my life?" or "Lord, what do you want me to do." It took the words of Henry Blackaby to help me see that this is the wrong question, well intended as it may be. The right questions is, "Lord, what is your will?" As I was formerly praying, that kept the focus on me. It's about that which would fulfill me and give me purpose. The latter question keeps the focus on God. That phrasing invites me to seek what God wants and what God is already doing, and how God invites me into a relationship with God through which God accomplishes God's own purpose.

Initially, I imagine that most people are reluctant to put their lives and their futures that fully out of their own control and into the control of Another. Yet that is exactly what God in Christ seeks. We are conditioned to want details about the way ahead of us before starting out on a journey. Jesus says essentially, "I am the way. A relationship with me is all the detailing you need." We are taught to avoid attempting anything for which we feel ill equipped. God promises to equip us with everything we need for that to which God calls us. We learn to trust our own skills and resources alone. Jesus invites us to rely on gifts that come only from the Holy Spirit of God.

We are called to be servants of God. We are not servants in the classic sense of doing what a master dismisses us and sends us to do. In this relationship, God works with and through us; we join with the Master in the accomplishing of the Master's will.

This radical level of faithfulness, though, is not given just to the extraordinary personalities among us. Over and again, God seeks and empowers the most ordinary of people, who then see and accomplish the most extraordinary of things. God will call us to do things that are explainable and do-able only by the intervention of God.

Is all this the stuff of fantasy, or is this real discipleship leadership? Is it wishful thinking, or has God really empowered the Body of Christ for this level of faith? Are we really ready to say, "Lord, what is your will?" then to fling ourselves into the unknown?

These rapids can be rough, but it beats stagnant water. I'll see you around the next bend.