The Journey of the ordinary in the story of an extraordinary God

Scott Sauls in Irresistible Faith.

According to Jesus, there is and always has been a group of ambassadors endowed with the resources to nudge the world toward peace, healing, wholeness, and flourishing. These ambassadors are unique. They are equipped to be less dependent on the strength of the human spirit, the intelligence of the human mind, and the moxie of the human will. They are called to lean instead on the strength of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom of God, and the determination of God’s vision to bring about peace, health, wholeness, and flourishing. 

Included among Jesus’ ambassadors are academics and scientists and celebrities and politicians and movers and shakers and such, to be sure. 

But in addition to these, Jesus also includes those like himself who aren’t part of the world’s elite clubs, VIP lists, and manifestos. These are people like Amos and Bathsheba and Peter and Mary the mother of Jesus, easily dismissed as “weak” and “common” and “foolish” and “low” and “despised,” but who, time and time again, find themselves right in the center of God’s strategy to bless and heal the world:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast. . . Because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. (1 Cor. 1: 26-30) 

According to the One who created and sustains and intends to renew the world, the answer to the world’s woes includes ordinary men, women, and children who have been awakened to their place in the Story of an extraordinary God.