In 1926 a man named Dr. James Allan Francis preached a sermon about “One Solitary Life.” I have heard and read the essay someone penned from it numerous times since my college days but if you have never read it or heard of it, I want to quote it to serve as an illustration for a point I want to make in my article today.

“Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. 

“He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself.

“While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed on a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

“Nineteen (now 20) long centuries have come and gone, and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all of the armies that have ever marched, all of the navies that were ever built, all of the parliaments that ever sat and all of the kings that have ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.”

Each one of us who has been touched by His life would agree with this author. Jesus lived upon this earth as a man, laying aside His privileges and power as God, to demonstrate to us how very much our God loves us. If God Himself chose the way of obscurity and humility to give us a pattern and example of how to live, why do most of us spend our time comparing ourselves with the “rich and famous”? Or trying to become a “someone” whom others admire and envy.

I could give many examples from the scriptures of those the Lord has used since the beginning of time who did not begin their life in a palace and yet the Lord took them from where they were to change history. 

Gideon was considered the least in his family from a family that was considered the least in his tribe and yet the Lord used him to deliver Israel from the hands of their oppressors in a miraculous way. David was out taking care of his father’s sheep when the prophet came to anoint the next king and was not even considered by his father to be worthy to be presented to the prophet for consideration. 

He became not only king but it was his very lineage through which our Lord Jesus came. Most of the minor prophets came on the scene from a place of obscurity — farmers, sheep herders, common men who yielded to the Lord to be used by Him to proclaim a particular message.

Mary and Joseph were selected by the Lord and entrusted with the great responsibility to birth and raise Jesus, and yet they were insignificant people in the eyes of their own community. Jesus called a rag-tag group of men to travel with Him to whom He would entrust the message of the Kingdom after just three years of being with Him. Fishermen, a tax collector, a zealot and a traitor were those who were called to take His message to the ends of the earth.

Down through history that story has not changed much. Yes, the Lord has called men and women from every tier of society to represent Him, but by far they were mostly men and women whom had no particular outstanding talents or upbringing. They had an encounter with the living God who called them and transformed them to be His witnesses.

The same is still true today. God is looking for those with hearts that will pursue Him and obey Him. He will use each one of us, no matter how insignificant we may think that we are if we will just respond to His voice when He speaks to us. I could give you story after story of those were unknown before their salvation but when they heeded the call, were used by the Lord to touch cities and nations with the gospel. Or they may have been the one who prayed for someone who became a nation changer. What if someone you personally know has the potential to reach thousands or millions for the gospel, but they have not yet responded to that call? Maybe your prayers and words of encouragement will be the very catalyst that is needed to start them on their journey.

As this year is coming to a close and we begin to think about next year, maybe all most of us need to do is say to the Lord, “here I am … I am available for You to use me in whatever way You want.” The hymn writer sang it, “Take my life and let it be, consecrated Lord to Thee … take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love … take my will and make it Thine, it shall be no longer mine … Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store, take myself and I will be, ever, only, all for Thee.” (Frances R. Havergal)