No Ordinary People — Morning Devotions

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Transcript

Back in 2004, a Hollywood movie came out called Shall We Dance. Wasn’t a big hit. Starred Richard Gere, Jennifer Lopez, it was a remake of an older Japanese movie. I haven’t personally seen it, but I’m told one of the characters, Beverly, hires a detective. She believes her husband’s having an affair with another woman.

And in one scene she says to the detective, all these promises that we make and we break, she was talking about marriage, why is it that you think people get married? And the detective says, passion? No, she says, well what, what is it? And then Beverly, says something very interesting, because we need a witness to our lives. There are 7 billion people on this planet, she said. What does one life really mean?

But she said in a marriage, you’re promising to care about everything, the good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane, and all the time every day. You’re saying that your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness.

Now I thought it was a fascinating response, worth thinking it over, but the worst thing I think for us is to go through life unnoticed.

It’s almost like as if we don’t matter. Have you ever had that feeling or that anyone, really, they don’t care. Beverly at least understood something about a marriage vow which if taken seriously, means that two people are committing themselves to each other for life. So I’m sure today that you want a life that matters, to have that assurance that you’re making a difference because in life there are no ordinary people because you do matter.

And don’t let any wrong childhood experiences get in your way. It was the 1990s Christian musician from the US called Darden Smith, and he wrote a good song called Broken Branches. He lives in Texas. And one day he was near the bus station watching the street people who hung out down there, and one couple in particular got his attention, so he wrote a song about them.

Two people stand on the corner counting up some bus fare change, a boy and a girl, 26 or 27, clothes are all in disarray. And he describes their appearance and the kind of life that they must have led a back alleys, back seats, park bench beds, careless love. And then he says, which way does the wind blow, how blue is the sky? Can you count the teardrops falling from a mother’s eye? Hey, that’s, that’s somebody’s daughter, that’s somebody’s son. Somebody’s pride and joy turned out to be a broken branch off the family tree.

He described it in that way. I think what he was saying as a musician is before you dismiss someone or judge them too harshly or pretend they’re not there, they really are somebody’s daughter or somebody’s son, and the tears may have been shed for that person. There could have been, and there probably was a degree of hope in the dreams, pride and joy, and that person, no matter how they look, they mattered to someone.

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But there is one who promises to care about everything, and you matter to God, the God of the universe who made Himself known in the person of Jesus Christ because he cares for you, he loves you, your life matters, and that means there’s no ordinary person.

Each individual is unique and loved by God, and I think that’s a tremendous concept to think over. Sit down and carefully think it through because it can make all the difference to think that God, the eternal Maker of our universe, loves you and me.

So it means that life is a gift. We’ve been entrusted with this most precious thing called human life and you matter to God. You know, we think that we have to earn something big to make our lives worthwhile. It’s not about money. It is about significance. You could do something great or you could just be an ordinary person, no matter what you do, how many trophies you’ve got there on the cupboard, no matter what you say about your retirement or whatever.

Your life does matter – and your life matters because you’re loved by God.

And again, let me say there is no such thing as an ordinary person because God says you are special. Paul, the apostle Paul says we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. God created you, you’re not an accident, and God has a plan for you, isn’t that a wonderful idea?

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, thank you and thank you that you do love us and you care every day. Amen.

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