Fighting Normal

I get up in the morning. I snuggle with my babies. I make breakfast. I teach four children their school lessons. I make lunch. I do dishes. I teach more school. I do a frantic cleaning of my house before my piano students arrive. I give piano lessons. I make dinner. I clean up dishes. I go for a walk. I work on projects that didn't get finished or play with my family. I read a biography to my children before bed. I put my kids to bed. I sit on the couch, stare at my husband, and wish I wasn't so tired. I go to bed.

And then I start over.

Normal. That's what my life is. Way too normal, and I don't like it. Normalcy plagues me!

We just finished reading the biographies of George Mueller, Amy Charmichael, and Gladys Aylward. They all have fascinating lives, and did amazing things for God! And the little voice inside my head starts to say, "You don't really do anything for God, you're just....normal. And I know it's true. Basically my whole life right now can be summed up in one paragraph. (See the first paragraph of this post!)

Just normal.

I've been fighting this all summer. I don't even have a "claim to fame!" I don't have an amazing college degree I can bring up, I haven't started a local ministry, I don't travel around proclaiming the Gospel, I don't even have an Etsy account! Some days as I barely drag myself to bed,  I wonder how I would have time or energy for anything else anyway.

Just normal.

And normal equals not pleasing to God, right? That's what my head's been telling me. Why would He want any of us to just be normal? I must be doing something wrong.

In my morning devotions I'm reading through the Old Testament. I thoroughly enjoyed Genesis, and the first part of Exodus. And then.......came the instructions for building the temple. I kept thinking of reasons to skip this section. (Sacriligious right??) I'm just going to flat say it -it's boring, especially in the good ole KJV. I can so plan my whole day out while reading the details on how to hang the curtains in the temple. I'm pretty sure the only ones that find this section fascinating are Biblical history teachers! And I'm not. (Remember the no exciting college degree part....) But, I'm reading it anyway. I am determined to read through the whole Bible again. (Without skipping genealogies this time...And without planning my day out through the boring parts....) If God truly inspired the Bible, then it's all there for a reason. I don't want to miss what He might want to say to me if I just listen.

So, there I am fighting normal and reading Exodus 31, and BAM! There it is. My new Bible hero. He's got a weird name. I've never even noticed him before, but there he is. Bezalel. Not a household Bible hero name, right? Never heard of him? That's because he's NORMAL!! But there he is - right there in the God inspired Word.

Exodus 31:1-5 says, "The Lord said to Moses, ² “See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, ³ and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, ⁴ to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, ⁵ in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft."

Here was this guy who was really good at crafty things. He did fantastic work in gold, silver, bronze, stone work, and wood carving. I'm just speculating here, but I would almost guarantee this was his J-O-B. He was good at it, he was artistic, people liked his work, and it's probably how he made his living. Normal alert - Bezalel has a normal job, doing what he's good at. Because for some reason he's really good at this stuff. He probably did this back in Egypt; maybe he helped carve the Sphinx. Maybe he was a little bored in the desert without as much carving to do.

All I know is he's a pretty normal guy with a normal job.

And then it happens. God wants to dwell with His people, and he can't because of their sin. He needs a place, a holy place, where He can meet them. He gives instructions to Moses to make a the tabernacle. AND THEN HE SAYS, " You know Bezalel? That guy that's really good at making things. Truth is, I put my Spirit in him and gave him that talent for JUST THIS TIME. That guy, that NORMAL guy that spends every day making things for a living, HE is going to handcraft the place where I will meet My people. Because he's really good at it." (My paraphrase.) And Bezalel says, "Yes, LORD, I will put aside my "normal" and work for You." (Also my paraphrase.) And then he begins to handcraft the ark of the covenant. The ARK OF THE COVENANT! God used a normal Joe to handcraft the thing that was so holy no one else could even touch it or they would die! This ark was to be set in the Holy of Holies, and God would actually come down to the mercy seat (that normal Bezalel made) to communicate, and be with His people. He could have had the great leader, Moses make it, but you know what? That's not what Moses was good at. Moses was good at shepherding. He spent forty years, yes, forty! being a smelly "normal" shepherd before God said, "Now is the time to use your shepherding talent. You're going to shepherd millions of My people through the desert to the Promised Land. But, Bezalel is going to make the most holy thing. The place where I will dwell.


And it was beautiful, because Bezalel was good at making things.


In reading Exodus that day, I realized "normal" is ok. God has placed inside each one of us something that we are really good at. And we go around feeling guilty because we spend our time doing that "thing" we're good at and enjoy. We feel badly because we're just normal. We're not doing great exploits for God, so we must be doing something wrong. We like to "make things" (fill in the blank), but we are surely wasting our time because nobody's getting saved because we're "making things."


Friend, may I be so bold as to suggest that if you are a child of God, that there will be a time when God will call you out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary?


My sister, Krista, works as a graphic designer. She's never been to school for this, she's just good at it. Naturally. This is how she spends every normal day, making a living. But then, one day our church puts on an evangelistic event for the community, and we need flyers and mail outs. Well done, catchy ones. Not ones like I would make that nobody would even look at twice. But good ones. Who do we call? We call Krista because she's good at that. People come to these events and hear the Gospel because of those flyers. A local adoption group needs things designed and printed to promote the need for children to be adopted. They call Krista because she's good at this. Children are adopted through these efforts.


Krista steps out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary. She answers the call to serve God doing the exact "normal" thing that the Spirit of God placed in her, and she's really good at it!


My friend, Karla, is really fantastic at taking pictures of people. She can make a normal person look stunning in a picture. This is a talent. My sisters will ask a stranger to take their pictures before they will ask me. I can make a beautiful person look terrible in a picture. I'm good at that. So when an organization that helps foster children needed their portraits taken, they didn't call me - they called Karla. Karla took beautiful photos of these children to help them find families. Karla takes pictures for people all the time, she's good at it, she likes it, but when the call came to do something for God using the gift He gave her, she said, "Yes."


She stepped out of the ordinary into the extraordinary.


I could go on and on! My aunt makes quilts. Lots of them. She loves quilting so much her husband bought her a quilting machine. She has a whole room devoted to quilts. And you know what? For some "strange reason" she's really good at designing and making them. She quilts for fun, she quilts for work.......and then every year, she makes quilts that are sold to raise money for a children's home in Missouri.


Ordinary becoming extraordinary.


Normal people using their gifts to worship God. Because that's what it is. When we are doing the things God gave us talent to do, it is a form of worship. We're giving back to Him the gift He gave us.


Even if it's just normal.


So, Bezalel is my new hero, and I'm embracing normal. I'm getting on my knees, and with my hands lifted, this is my prayer, "God, I'm so normal, but I really like doing _________. I'm going to stop feeling guilty for doing this every day. I want You to know I'm ready, I am so ready, Lord. Whether it's forty years away like Moses' was, or today, I'm ready to use my normal for You. I'm ready for Your call. I'm ready to build the ark of the covenant, or make flyers, or take pictures, or quilt, or talk, or write, or teach, or crochet, or garden, or cook.  All for the purpose of my ordinary talent to explode into the extraordinary that You created me for."


My life is normal. And it's ok.