Ordinary

 

When I was in middle school, I worked off and on for Leonard Briney, a farmer friend of my dad’s.  He was fair with me, but I earned every dollar that he paid me.  One day, I was finished with the job that he had given me to do, so I went looking for him.  He was sitting up in the gabled grain room above the dairy barn with his old .22 rifle in his lap.  The room had a low ceiling and was full of shucked ears of corn on one side and husked wheat on the other side.  I began to explain to Mr. Briney that I was finished with my job, when he quietly raised the rifle and shot a rat about 20 yards away.  The grain attracted vermin and Mr. Briney had to exterminate them once a week.  The rats were huge and the barn cats were afraid to tangle with them.  But the rats were no match for Mr. Briney’s little .22 rifle.  The stock was loose, and the barrel was rusty, but the barrel bore was clean, and the action was well-oiled.  And Mr. Briney never missed!  The rats perished not because of the quality of the gun, but because of the skill of the marksman.  Paul said in I Corinthians 1:26,27&29, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; That no flesh should glory in his presence.”  Just like Mr. Briney using an ordinary rifle, God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things so that He will get the glory.  Hey, it’s not about us; it’s all about God.