"Out of the Ordinary"

“Out of the Ordinary”

 

As I was writing a previous article (“When God Has Things Backwards”) I recalled an incident from 50+ years ago. I was on break at my warehouse job and a fellow employee told of driving home five miles in reverse when his transmission wouldn’t go forward. (He was quite a jokester so I wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg.) Then about a year ago while stopped at a light Karen and I saw a car cross in front of us going backwards! (After the light changed we tried to follow but lost him when he rounded a bend.) So maybe my friend of long ago was on the level.

When we see, hear, or read something out of the ordinary it piques our curiosity and we begin to speculate. Sometimes this happens as we read Scripture. Here are a few examples:

   “If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake   and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.” (Mark 8:35, NLT)

   “…There are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” (Luke 13:30)

   “…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….” (Matthew 5:44)

   “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5, quoting Proverbs 3:34)

In the account of Gideon (Judges 6-7) God told him to reduce the Israelite army from 32,000 to 300 to fight the Midianites. What right-minded general would do that? General God Almighty! And He won a great victory in an out of the ordinary way.

Some six centuries later Judah was threatened by Babylon. The Prophet Habakkuk complained that God was allowing a pagan nation to oppress His people (“Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”—1:13). But God assured His messenger, “I got this” (“Look at the proud. They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked, but the righteous will live by their faith.”—2:4, NLT). God in His grace got through to His cantankerous servant because in the end Habakkuk said (paraphrased), “My world may be falling apart, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (3:17-18).

God sometimes does extraordinary things in out of the ordinary ways that may not make sense to you and me. Long ago Abraham asked the question, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). How I answer today will reflect my level of trust in Him.

 

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan