Life was miserable.  Obscure and common Israelite citizen Gideon had been reduced to hiding in the dark hole of a winepress to keep his meager grain supply from Midianite raiders.  These enemies kept the nation in a state of terror and poverty with their frequent and merciless attacks.  It was day to day survival for Gideon and his family.  Hope of a better life had faded to black.

                Then He showed up.with a message from God.  Peering over the stone rim of the winepress the unexpected, other-world visitor calls Gideon's name and addresses him as "mighty hero."

                Mighty?  Not Gideon.  Hero?  Not a chance.  This is a man disillusioned with God, devoid of confidence and courage, distressed to the point of hopelessness, and disadvantaged personally and socially.  Just think of the last child selected when the class chooses sides.  That's Gideon.  He's certainly no candidate for the heroic, especially if God's heading the selection process.

                But, believe it!  God has shown up to hand-pick Gideon for a special assignment.

                Don't miss this powerful principle in God's eternal economy.  When God seeks someone to use for his purposes, he doesn't look among the perfect, the powerful, and the popular.  He chooses the flawed and fallible.like me.like you.like Gideon.

                So an ordinary guy becomes the instrument of an extraordinary upset victory.  Prompted and prodded by God Gideon raises a rag-tag Israelite army to take on the far superior Midianite forces.  In need of consistent reinforcement and reassurance he readies for battle.  Finally, with only 300 men specifically designated by God he apprehensively risks all to implement a divinely-given battle plan and rout the Midianite army by the power of God.  (Read the riveting story in Judges chapters six and seven in the Bible.)  From defeated least to victorious leader is Gideon's unlikely story.  It is a story God wants to uniquely write in every life.

                Do you have a Gideon complex?  Is ordinary written all over your life?  Then you're a prime candidate for God's extraordinary purposes.  God's formula is simple and consistent.  He calls.  He directs.  He empowers.  We trust.  We follow.  We marvel.  God's amazing purposes unfold before our very eyes and his glory is enhanced by the very commonness we disdain.

                So embrace your ordinariness.  Offer your doubts and disadvantages and disillusionment and disabilities to God.  Ordinary people in his extraordinary hands provide the means by which the heroic happens.  Become a hero.