Amazing people

I've been thinking about some of the people I know this morning. I must admit that I do hang out in strange circles...mostly among Christians, but let me add that there are among us some amazing people. People who are walking with God and are different because of it. I don't mean by that to say that their lives are easy. Actually they have very difficult lives, but it seems that those difficulties bring to them a "flavoring" that only trials and problems can accomplish.

I have been thinking of a dear couple that we have become friends with who have lost a son. It has broken their hearts, but I am watching them both grow in faith far beyond what they even now realize. In the midst of their grief God is working.

I have been thinking about a sweet young couple that I have known for years and now read their stories online as they serve God as missionaries in another country. I am watching them reach out to the lost around them with the love of Christ. I am so thrilled to see what God is doing in their lives.

I have been thinking about a dear couple whom we have known for years. They have had a real love for God through all the years we have known them, and yet their children have broken their hearts. We have cried with them, and often just sat with them and listened. They love God, and are following him through very dark times in their lives. Yes, they do ask "why?", but know the answers may not come in this life, and yet they follow God.

I have been thinking of others over the years...many more than I can write about here, who have followed God, loved him and served him. They weren't all beautiful people. They were not, for the most part, popular...just ordinary people...people you would pass in the store and never see, but people who are amazing because they have allowed God to use them.

People like Fran, a man whose joy in life was greeting people and handing out bulletins at the first church I pastored. He was a factory worker, just an ordinary guy, but his passion was making people feel welcome in God's house, and he did.

What I find is that God doesn't use the great, wealthy, powerful and beautiful....he uses US. He uses those who think they have nothing to give. He uses the broken, the hurting, the discouraged. He works through those least likely to impress the world. He uses us so HE will get all the glory. I'm so glad that he does. I am one of those who the world does not notice, and yet God can use me and be glorified. In the passage below I have always found great encouragement because I have found myself there- God uses "the things that are not (me), so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." He uses nothings like me to work in his kingdom. I am so thrilled that I can be part of what he is doing in his kingdom. Imagine that, a thing that is not...filled with his spirit and employed for his service, making a difference in time and eternity....wow!

If he can use me he can use anyone....and HE DOES! So, be encouraged. God can work in you, no matter what you think you offer, and he will be glorified through what we bring...broken lives, shattered dreams, tired hearts and all...God can use each one.

1Co 1:26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;
1Co 1:27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong,
1Co 1:28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
1Co 1:29 so that no man may boast before God.
1Co 1:30 But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
1Co 1:31 so that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."