The Glory of the Average Person

This is something that’s been bothering me for some time, and I finally decided to write about it any pass it along to bother someone else…

I love books, movies, and video games about important people – people who are talented, famous, brave, and selfless – people who make a big difference in the world around them for good.  Whether I’m reading Ursula LeGuin, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, or the Bible, or playing Fable, Final Fantasy, or Star Wars (Knights of the Old Republic), I’m somehow taking part in a story where the main character rises to greatness to save their world and make a difference for good.

Here’s my problem: Looking at how my life is going, I don’t think I’ll ever live up to any person in those stories I like.  It doesn’t look like I’m ever going to be a talented, gifted, or famous person. I don’t think I’ll ever have a chance to do something incredibly important or really good (in a big way) in the world. 

So after coming to this realization, I began to seek out people I though were making a big difference in the world and talk to them.  The funny thing was they didn’t think they were doing something really important, and what they were doing that I though was important didn’t seem to make them happier or feel more special or different from the rest of us.  Some regretted the steps it took to be what I considered important, and envied me (a plain old average person!)  Some of them told me God was against some of their more ambitious plans for greatness in ministry or in God’s kingdom.

What did William Wallace really want before he was forced to take up his sword and liberate Scotland?  What did Maximus really want before he overthrew the corrupt Emperor Commodus?  They just wanted to live a normal life – tend a farm, raise a family, love their wife.  What did Jeremiah want?  Probably just a normal life like anyone else – get married, get a job, etc.  All these men, (whether fictitious or real) seemed to have their opportunity for greatness thrust upon them, or in other words, God himself rose them up for the task.  Did they deserve it?  Probably not, especially in Jeremiah’s case — who was called before he was even born to prove if he was worthy of being a prophet of God.  Are they special to God?  The modern-day versions I talked to don’t feel special at all.

I would say that they are no more special than the rest of us – the average people.  The only difference is that they are here to serve… us.  The great people we admire throughout history who did great things, saved many people, etc. were here to serve the average person.  The butler and the maid serves the master of the house, the hero, the warrior, the king, the leader serves… the average person. It seems that their calling has not so much to do with their choice then with God’s choice.  Without deserving it, it is thrust upon them.

God raised up prophets and kings – not for the purpose of glorifying them, but to serve the most important target audience – his people.  Us.  The average person.  The person who does their unimportant job every day, goes home, spends some time with their average family, and then goes to their average bed.  In the morning, they wake up to another average day with average goals. There is no giant to slay, no kingdom to fight, no great battle to plan or great enemy to slay.  They don’t save the world, they aren’t legendary heroes, just normal average people. When they die, they will be forgotten and will not be written of in the history books or talked about with awe in classrooms.

Yet to God, these are they very people who are the most important.  The leaders and the heroes are only important because they are part of God’s people too.  Elijah, one of God’s greatest prophets lived, with a widow and her son.   God chose a shepherd boy (the youngest in his unimportant family in an unimportant tribe) to be the leader of his people.  He was to be a great king for the purpose to lead God’s people.

In some ways similar to the greatest of human heroes and leaders, God himself is a servant of his people – always looking out for us, rescuing us, loving us.  He loved the common person so much, he became human himself, took average men and women for friends, and died horribly for us so we might know him.  So much pain, so much planning, so may centuries of frustration and fighting.  Why?  He did it for us.

This is our glory, the glory of the average person.