Have you ever been reading a passage and it suddenly came to life? That happened to me this morning. I’ve been quietly listening to a group of talented women who have been honest about their fears.

As I read the passage below, those beautiful women came to mind.

They were surprised and wondered how easy it was for Peter and John to speak. They could tell they were men who had not gone to school. But they knew they had been with Jesus.  They were not able to argue about what Peter and John had said because the man who had been healed was standing with them. Acts 4:13-14 (NLT)

Peter and John? Ordinary men.

But there was something that captivated their audience that day. It wasn’t their education or their appearance. It wasn’t their resume or their standing in the community.

It was the fact that they had been with Jesus.

That alone had done something inside of these men that could not be denied.

But there was more.

A man had been dead and now stood alive, blinking in the sunlight, wondering what in the world just happened to him.

Can’t deny that either.

I’m ordinary, what about you? Ordinary, too?

I think that’s what I’m hearing the women on that ministry page say.

Like me, they can’t get around that fact, but we can’t let that hinder us because our ordinary selves in the presence of Jesus is something much greater.

How many times do we focus on what we can’t do, who we aren’t, what we wish we were. . . when all we really need is the presence of Jesus in our lives?

That’s enough. Ordinary or not.

Father, today I rejoice in my ordinary self. Today I soak in your presence. Walk with me. Keep my focus on you. May the power in ministry, in my home, in my relationships be less about what I am not, and more about who You are. In your powerful name, amen.