Ordinary People

What does “ordinary people” mean? We want the happiness of people needing people, but we fall prey to enshrining the needs of someone other than God as the bedrock of our happiness. “Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the LORD” (Psalm 144:15 KJV). We live in exceptional times, or as Charles Dickens wrote, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” in A Tale of Two Cities (1859). Our sense of “happiness” and “ordinary people” must be tied to the LORD, for Hollywood’s “Ordinary People” (1980) or Broadway’s “People” (1964) [“needing people”] are only a facsimile of the truly blessed people Jesus described. “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). These are the ordinary people, who are the happiest people on earth. Only when our heartfelt sympathy is defined by the LORD, then Charles Dickens’ Sydney Carton’s sacrifice for the happiness of another becomes at all significant. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done.” LORD, may our motivation and aspiration be of Thee, and may the world receive the benefit. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Not All Have Faith

“And that we may be delivered from perverse and evil people. For not all have faith” (2Thessalonians 3:2 NET). God knows not all have faith. Screenwriters need a villain to provide drama for the plot’s deliverance of its hero or heroine. God does not need to recruit sinners to provide drama for the stage of life. Already “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). But, sin is not like gravity, since not everyone has to sin. From the beginning, God has been positioning His resources and all the players in this vast drama of life for the conclusion. “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11 KJV). Let us not be like Lucifer, who allowed his self-love to overpower his love for Yahweh. Let us not even blame the Devil, our environment, or our upbringing for why-we-are-the-way-we-are. Instead, “since the day we heard it, [we] do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10 KJV). It may not always feel like it, but the Almighty wins the final victory!