significance from the (in)significance

remember that time i said, "hey, i'll restart my blog then maybe do a monthly post or something". yeah, that was funny. don't know if i'll pull off even bi-monthly...

but i wanted to pop on here real quick to share a well-needed reminder the Lord gave me today in the genealogy of Jesus in matthew 1 which i'll put below for reference:

"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her [who had been the wife] of Uriah. Solomon begot Rehoboam, Rehoboam begot Abijah, and Abijah begot Asa. Asa begot Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Uzziah. Uzziah begot Jotham, Jotham begot Ahaz, and Ahaz begot Hezekiah. Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Manasseh begot Amon, and Amon begot Josiah. Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel begot Abiud, Abiud begot Eliakim, and Eliakim begot Azor. Azor begot Zadok, Zadok begot Achim, and Achim begot Eliud. Eliud begot Eleazar, Eleazar begot Matthan, and Matthan begot Jacob. And Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David [are] fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon [are] fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ [are] fourteen generations."

i will self-admittedly say i usually skim-read through this because there are so many names. and why? because only a handful of them are well-known people in the bible. the rest? not really significant. but think about it:

they were part of the genealogy of Christ

i tried to think about each one and remember that these were actual people with full lives and imagine:
during their lives, they didn't even realize that their entire life and family were a part of fulfilling the prophecy of the coming Savior. i don't know if they did anything significant that maybe wasn't recorded in scripture or if they simply walked in daily life. but without each one, the genealogy wouldn't be complete.

on this topic, spurgeon said:
"with one or two exceptions these are names of persons of little or no note. the later ones were persons altogether obscure and insignificant. our Lord was a "root out of dry ground"; a shoot from the withered stem of jesse. He set small store by earthly greatness. He must need to be of human race; but He comes to a family which was of low estate, and there finds his reputed father, joseph, a carpenter of nazareth. He is the poor man's King. He will not disdain any of us though our father's house be little in israel. He will condescend to men of low estate"

isn't that what life is most times?
to be a small part of an unknown big picture, wondering what my purpose is in life. corrie ten boom said "never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God." how true that is. that whatever life throws at me or whatever i walk through (no matter how big or small), as long as i live each day as a servant of the Almighty, He is faithful to use me and work through me as His all-knowing, eternal thoughts know best. as just some mere speculation on my part, who knows if maybe a strong family background is what led joseph to not react with anger, vengeance, or judgment when he discovered mary was pregnant. maybe his parents raised him to be a wise, kind man, unknowingly preparing him for raising the Son of God. like seriously, the "insignifcant" people's lives were probably mostly about living out their daily routine and raising a family that would raise another family that would raise another family that would eventually lead to the coming of Christ

it's a struggle for me - the struggle of wanting to do something "significant" for the Lord and do something "great" with my life. yet this thought always comes to my mind:

"to give my best to the Lord seems like it could never be good enough."

but taking a closer look to some of the people in the genealogy there's:

- the whole ordeal of judah and his daughter tamar's incest in genesis 38

- two women who were not of jewish heritage - rahab who was a canaanite harlot & ruth who was a moabite

- david & bathsheba and the adultery + murder involved in 2 samuel 11

- a whole slew of kings who ranged from imperfect to horrible rulers

- captives of babylon who were taken away because of their continual disobedience. 

- and of course, those "insignificant" people again.

so when God asks for our best, He just wants to be given priority in our lives. which becomes meaningful only because His strength is made perfect in weakness. i take so much comfort that Jesus didn't just choose those "perfect" people (which by the way - doesn't exist). He didn't even choose the significant or highly-esteemed. that's not what makes a person worthy of being used by God.

it's a simple, daily walk. some days may feel like you're barely hanging on or army-crawling through an endless day with not much in sight. or maybe feel like you're only just going in boring circles. it doesn't matter if you go off and do something crazy or just have a "normal" life in a small city.
as long as your focus is on serving the Lord and being open and willing to do whatever He asks of you to (whether that's big or small), your life won't pass with insignificance. because God isn't limited to our view of what's meaningful and what's not. He uses every little bit for His glory

happy monday, everyone :)