Friday 17th July

A shorter blog today.

Have you ever been in the right place at the right time and something amazing, something extra ordinary has happened ? Those snapshot moments of real joy or moments of memory making intensity. The day I scored a winning try in the last seconds of the rugby match to clinch the cup. The time I was surfing and a dolphin appeared next to me. The day I kissed Rachelle Thackray. The evening on a hillside in Chile where the wild eagle landed and took food from my hand. That sunset over lake Malawi. The time I saved Mark's life when he fell through a window. The surprise gift of a days rally driving just 'because we think you're great'. The day she said she loved me.

One of the greatest themes that runs through the Bible is how a great God takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things with them to accomplish His incredible purposes. This enduring theme of scripture is played out time and time and time again. But its not just in scripture. The principle is true for us too. No matter who we are, no matter where we've been, no matter what we’ve done, we are ordinary people who can do extraordinary things for God. It's been said that most people that we call heroes don't really know that they are heroes. Because real heroes don't know that they're heroes. They are simply men and women who do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason.

Wonder Woman (I knew I’d get her into my blogs somehow!) was once talking with Wonder Girl (vol. 10 of DC’s JLA 'Golden Perfect' mini-series if anyone is interested?!) who was feeling the weight of the responsibility of the ‘Wonder’ mantle she’d inherited. Wonder Girl said “How can I be a hero?” Wonder Woman replied ….  wait for it …

“A hero is just someone who does the things a hero would do” And Wonder Woman is right.              (She’s never wrong by the way) The way to become a hero is just to act and react in the way a hero would. The way to be a Christian is just to act and react in the way a Christian would. The way to do extraordinary things for God is to do extraordinary things for God. I know it sounds crazy or obvious or both but it’s true.

Ruth & Naomi & Boaz are just very ordinary people who did extra ordinary things for God.

And I think sometimes we spend so long waiting for exactly the right set of circumstances to arise before we do the extraordinary thing, that the time never arises. We live for God now. Today. This instant. And the ordinary becomes the extra ordinary.

Until tomorrow.