On the Race I’ve been faced with the real life dilemma that I am actually completely ordinary. I don’t, in my natural sense, possess the ability to cure ailments, to fix marriages, to multiply my money to help feed the hungry, to multiply my limited clothing to help clothe needy. My resume is just a piece of paper. My degree in elementary education means very little when you’re being asked to plow dirt, move bricks, or feed hundreds of homeless people in a span of a couple of hours.
During my time in Myanmar, our Pastor (and host) asked if I would be willing to share the Word with the church during our time there. I made a deal with the Lord at the beginning of the race that I’d say yes to whatever He put on the table for me so I was sorta strapped to say yes, ya know?
When I was preparing for what to share, I can tell you I typed and deleted, typed and deleted sermon after sermon and felt wholly inadequate. I don’t have the proper education, I said to myself. I don’t know theology, I said to myself. Surely someone else is better suited for this, I said to myself.
Then I came across the story of Moses. For two chapters of Exodus (3,4) Moses argues with God of how inadequate he is, how he surely can not bring his people out of Egypt for reasons in which he listed. God tells Moses to throw his staff onto the ground. Moses threw it. It turned into a serpent. Moses ran from it but God tells Moses to grab it by the tail…
Moses was an ordinary man. But God took an ordinary man and used him to do some extraordinary things. I see myself a lot in Moses. Not because he went on to do crazy cool things, though I have had the opportunity to do those! Moses was completely ordinary. My name is Melissa Vereen and I am completely ordinary. Moses ran from what God was giving him. I have spent a lot of my life running.
But when God told Moses to grab it by the tail, God is asking you to grab hold of what beautiful things He has intended for you. In doing so, God isn’t asking for a resume overflowing with endorsements and awards. God isn’t asking for skills or anything beyond obedience. God gives us one step at a time, ready to supply the next. God is just asking for your willingness, your obedience.
I gave that sermon. I told the story of Moses, ordinary making extraordinary in a little bitty church of Myanmar, to the congregation of some of the most beautiful people I have ever met. One of them, a kind man named Moses, who is an ordinary man doing some extraordinary things.
Go grab hold of the serpent, y’all. Take the one step He is showing you, know that another isn’t far behind. The Lord’s faithfulness falls over the faithful. Go do the thing!
