Good morning…
“Before my son’s knee surgery a few years ago, the head of orthopedic surgery at Duke told me he was an English major,” she texted me a story immediately after reading yesterday’s post, The Spirit And The Zebra. “He also explained at this modest prestigious medical practice that he ALWAYS has at least one English major on his medical team. Because while we need the algorithm folks – science and math majors – we also need the humanities students, especially English majors. It is these individuals who can identify the zebra in a pack of horses. They see things differently.”
Her story makes me think of a quote from last week’s Wednesday morning discussion of Diary of a Pastor’s Soul. Referring to a young man applying to Harvard to meet his parents’ demanding expectation, author Craig Barnes writes: “Teenagers realize what is really being asked of them: ‘How will you achieve being spectacular?’ If he is going to make a difference in the world, it will come through thousands of small, faithful, ordinary choices he makes along the way in life, not because an Ivy League school chose him.”
English majors. Math majors. Science majors. Those who do not receive a “formal education.” Pastors and teachers. Plumbers and doctors. Parents and friends. If we are to make a difference in the world, it will come through thousands of small, faithful, ordinary choices we make along the way in life. Each one of us is designed by our Creator to see things differently, seeing through the unique set of eyes we have been given.
“You, my friend, see the zebras in your living room amongst the beautiful horses,” my friend kindly observed. “And, sometimes, God’s plan for us is not to change and impact the thousands, but maybe just one. So know, your blog – whatever its next iteration might be or remain being – is doing God’s work.”
“And, oh by the way, about the zebra shirt: the Lord goes before us (Isaiah 45:2 as well as many other verses),” she concluded. “The shirt was for your friend – and you did not even know it.”
“I’ll go ahead of you, clearing and paving the road. I’ll break down bronze city gates, smash padlocks, kick down barred entrances. I’ll lead you to buried treasures, secret caches of valuables—confirmations that it is, in fact, I, God, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name…
I’ve singled you out, called you by name, and given you this privileged work. And you don’t even know me!
I am God, the only God there is. Besides me there are no real gods. I’m the one who armed you for this work, though you don’t even know me, so that everyone, from east to west, will know that I have no god-rivals. I am God, the only God there is. I form light and create darkness, I make harmonies and create discords.
I, God, do all these things” (Isaiah 45:2-7, MSG).
Every day of our small, ordinary, faithful life, are we training our eyes to see the One Real God do all these amazing things?
…Sue…
