I Am Ordinary!

 Greetings,


I want to thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to follow me on my journey home. For those of you who keep up with my blogs you can attest to the fact that it has been a rough journey. Nevertheless, it is the journey that God has placed me on I will do my best to make Him proud!

Today, I want to share with you some of the thoughts that have been weighing heavy upon me lately. One of the statements in Andy Andrews' book The Traveler's Gift has gotten me in quite a fit! The statement is "I will greet this day with a forgiving spirit". Crap! I can tell I am not going to like this one right off the bat. However, I have tried and I am trying to make this statement come true in my life. I want to have a forgiving spirit. I want to be able to say that people don't have control over my emotions. I truly believe that God wants me to be a forgiver. BUT....I just can't let people off the hook like that!

Are you that way? I hope there is somebody out there who is reading this blog and saying to themselves, "I know exactly what you are talking about Derek". I pray that I am not the only one who is struggling with this. Surely, there is someone who will stand up and say, "I have trouble forgiving people too!" Of course the reason I want to know that there is someone else out there is because I don't want to be the only bad guy in all the internet!

We are like that, aren't we? We like to know that are other people doing the same bad stuff that we are doing. It makes it sound better if it's more than just you breaking some moral code. We like company in our sins. It makes us feel a little bit better. "Well, so and so is doing it too". Something about a bridge and you doing it as well comes to my mind. Why do I want to know that there is someone else out there who is having trouble forgiving? What in the world does someone else's life have to do with me and my hang-ups? I will tell you why.

I like to know that there are others like me because, in my mind, in our minds, we all want to be pretty average. Now wait, before you start calling me names and deleting this web site from your computer hear me out! From a very young age we are taught that we can, pretty much, be anything we want to be. Isn't that true? Mom or Dad says, "What do you want to be when you grow up?". Of course the answers of fireman, policeman, astronaut, and professional athlete are the ones that come to mind. In reality the statement you can be whatever you want to be is just a flat out lie. You can't be whatever you want to be. I wanted to be a major league baseball player but I am not. Why? Did I not want it enough? I mean I really WANTED to play baseball in the major leagues yet, somehow me wanting something and it actually happening are two different things. You can't be whatever you want but you can be whatever God wants you to be!

This is where I get to the average guy. You know who I am talking about. It's the person who is average. The one who goes to work and pays his bills. He goes to church on Sunday and loves his family very much. That's where most of us live. We don't make millions. We don't have advertisement deals or walk red carpets to some awards show. We watch other people doing that! However, when we really get down to the brass tacks we like this guy. We want to be average! We want to be average because, when you think about it, those are the types of people that God uses all the time. I know I have a problem with forgiveness. I know that my heart hardens toward some people. I know that I am a sinner. But, what I also know is that even in the midst of my unforgiveness and sin God still uses me. And he uses you too!

Think of David in the Bible. He was murderer, an adulterer, a liar, and a cheat. Still, he is one of the most familiar individuals in the Bible. Through David, God let His word be heard. David was average, well as average as king can be! But what about the other Bible heroes? Weren't they average. God picked ordinary people to be prophets. Twelve ordinary people became the apostles of Christ. God loves ordinary. He loves to take the ordinary and make them extraordinary for Him.

So, you are probably thinking, "Derek I have no idea what you are talking about! What in the world does this have to do with you not being able to forgive?" Well, here it is. I try to have a forgiving heart, I really do. But what if my inability to forgive begins to eat away at me? What if this flaw that I have begins to tear away at the fabric of my faith? What if I begin to believe that, because of this unforgiveness, I am not worthy to serve God which I' not! But thanks to the grace that God has given to me I am worthy! When I begin to believe that my sins make me unworthy and incapable of serving God, then the devil's got me!

I have trouble with unforgiveness but I am trying. I am a sinner but God still uses me. I am average, ordinary, and mediocre at best. But with God in my life I become more. There is nothing wrong with wanting to know that others struggle the same way you do. It's encouraging! What's even better is knowing that God is using those people too. I WILL seek to have a forgiving spirit and I am doing better at it! However, not being all the way there doesn't keep me from serving God. When we start to believe that we have to be perfect to serve our creator then the creation will never become what the creator intended his creation to be! Did you get all that? Let me make it simple...You are a sinner, you are average, you have unforgivenss in your heart! So do I! But God loves us! He loves the people who say, "Holy Moly I have got some problems in my life. I try but I just can't forgive so and so!" He loves the people who can admit that they are not perfect but that they can be through the blood of Jesus Christ!

So, you go on being average. Continue being normal! Strive to be ordinary! Because the ordinary become extraordinary when they let God into their lives! My name is Derek Hutchison and I am ordinary! Yeah for me! Until next time.

Blessings,

Derek