Gtcotr/ws062012
Judges 5:24 Most blessed
among women is Jael, The wife of Heber the Kenite; Blessed is she among women
in tents.
(The
story of Jael … Share the history of Heber’s household and his wife Jael. Tell
about the duties of a homemaker in that setting and how keeping the tent ropes
tight and the tent pegs secure was Jael’s daily duty. Conclude with the fact
that Jael was the perfect person to do this particular job since she had evidently
become great in her ordinary, everyday, day in and day out duties. Her ordinary
life of pounding tent stakes into the hard ground with “her” hammer prepared
her right arm to strike with the confidence, accuracy and strength necessary to
insure the kill. It was her hammer and her tent peg and her daily chores which
gave Jael this opportunity to be great. Forever she will be remembered and
blessed among women in tents!)
Judges 4:21 Then Jael,
Heber’s wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly to
him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went down into the ground; for he
was fast asleep and weary. So he died.
Greatness
is seldom achieved because someone does many things well but rather because
someone does one thing extremely well. And believe me – there is something
which you were born to do extremely well.
There
is something you can naturally do better, without much effort, than most of the
people around you can do with all their might. God creates each person with purpose
and He especially endows each one with natural abilities to complete their
purpose.
However,
just because you have been given a range of natural abilities which can be
sharpened into great abilities does not guarantee you success. God gives us
potential but we must prepare ourselves so that we are ready for use in the day
of God’s choosing.
Many are called but few are chosen – Matthew 22:14 – why? This is
mostly due to the fact that out of the many to whom God has given potential,
only a few actually work to reach their God given potential. Others, the many,
are either lazily coasting along in the middle of the crowd on their natural
abilities or else investing themselves in areas to which they are neither
called to nor gifted in.
God
gives potential but potential is just potential … potential only guarantees
opportunity to excel … however, that opportunity often goes unnoticed because
it comes to us in such ordinary ways. Such was the case with Jael …
This
truth was also exemplified in the life of David who as a young shepherd boy,
doing his daily chores tending the sheep of his father. David testified how he protected
them by killing a bear, then a lion, and when given the chance, was prepared to
kill Goliath with that same sling.
David
was great in his ordinary which prepared him for the extraordinary.
On
January 15, 2009, a US Airways Airbus 320 took off from LaGuardia Airport in
New York City on a schedule routine flight bound for Charlotte, North Carolina.
During the initial climb the Airbus encountered a flock of Canadian geese which
upon striking the plane disabled both engines.
Captain
Sullenberger quickly decided his best option was to ditch his plane with its
155 passengers and crew, in the Hudson River. With his decision made he
informed the Air Traffic Controller and told his passengers to “brace for
impact”.
At
3:31pm, this 57 year old airline seasoned pilot from Denison, Texas, performed
what has been determined to be the perfect emergency ditching of a plane,
landing so smoothly that many onboard felt it to be a better landing than they
had previously experienced in planes under normal conditions. All 155 people
survived and the plane remained intact.
After
every passenger and crew member had exited and was safely away from the plane,
Captain Sully walked back through the compartments twice to make sure no one
was left behind before leaving himself.
What
made this man perform so extraordinarily in such a critical time? When asked
that question by CBS News, Captain Sullenberger said:
"One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've
been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and
training. And on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a
very large withdrawal."
In
other words, he was prepared. What prepared Captain Sully … it was his
everyday, day in and day out, hum drum routine of life – just doing the basics
over and over again, becoming great in his ordinary … this qualified him to
perform when the extraordinary was required.
Years
before this incident Captain Sullenberger founded a consulting group aimed at
teaching and coaching others to focus on safety, performance and reliability
issues. Consistency with respect to daily management is a critical key to long
term success and will serve to stabilize during crisis.
There
are no shortcuts to success and the person who hopes to be prepared for the
truly critical moments we all face in life must recognize the necessity of
becoming great in the ordinary. In all of Elijah’s life and ministry there are
only yet 7 miracles recorded in the Bible done by Elijah, the great prophet.
Even Jesus, though He was the Son of God, lived a regular routine of life which
included such repetitive things regularly attending church.
Luke 4:16 So He came to
Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.
There
are three things I am going to ask you to do on a consistent basis that will
help you to become great in your ordinary.
1.
Be content with the ordinary.
2.
Develop a dependable routine of life.
3.
Serve God by helping others.
