God of the Ordinary

If we pay attention when plagues start breaking out across Egypt, it doesn't look like God is doing much of anything at all. Sure, it sounds weird, in some cases. It sounds horrible. It's not something that we would want to live through. But when we look at the first several plagues that God brought upon the land, and even Egypt's reaction to them, they're pretty ho-hum. 

They're ho-hum because the magicians of Egypt are able to do the exact same things. 

Blood for water? We can do that. Frogs everywhere? We can do that, too. Every time Moses raises his walking stick and acts in the name of the Lord, the leading magic men of Egypt wave their wand and do the same thing. (It has always been interesting to me that more frogs in a land already covered with them is considered a victory, but I wasn't there, so okay.) 

At every turn, Moses calls on the name of his God, and Egypt responds by saying, "So? Your God isn't doing anything all that impressive." 

But He will. 

This is an important reminder for us as we seek to journey our way through this world. Most of us want God to do the incredible. We want Him to do the miraculous. We want Him to show His power unmistakably, and for good reason - He is, after all, God; we want Him to act like it. 

The reality, though, is that most of what God does in our lives is actually pretty ordinary. Most of what God does doesn't look all that special. In the eyes of the world, it's pretty ho-hum, even when we can recognize it as a definitive act of God. 

We get a promotion, but so do thousands of other persons. We have a baby, but so do thousands of other couples. We make ends meet this month, but so do thousands of other couples. The world looks at the things that we give God credit for in our lives, and they don't get it. The world is doing just as much for its people; culture, community, life as we know it is just as capable of those things. This world just looks at us like those Egyptian magicians and shrugs its shoulders. "So? Your God isn't doing anything all that impressive."

And a lot of the time, we can agree with that. We'd have to agree with that. From the outside looking in, it doesn't look like God is doing anything all that impressive. 

But...

He will.