Each morning it’s the same ordeal. Roll out of bed, eat breakfast, brush teeth, go to work. Sometimes it seems like life is just too dull. While we tend to a host of mundane responsibilities, it feels like we’re missing out on something. Where is the glamour? Where is the glitz? Where is the feeling that I am doing something indispensable to the survival of mankind?
Every day we hear about folks who “made it big.” Someone gets voted into an important political office. Another becomes the CEO of a large corporation. Someone else rescues a family from a burning house and is heralded as a hero.
But what about me?
You might consider your life to be ordinary, maybe even downright boring. Regardless of how you may try to embellish your experiences, they just do not seem glamorous.
If this describes you, do you feel like your life is wasted?
If so, find a Bible and read the seventeenth chapter of Exodus, which describes a battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites.
As the battle was about to begin, many people were assigned important tasks. Moses, the leader of the Israelites, was to position himself on top of a mountain overlooking the battlefield and hold his rod over his head. He found that whenever he let his arms down to rest, the Amalekites would begin to prevail, and when he held them up, the Israelites prevailed.
Down on the battlefield, a promising and capable young man named Joshua was chosen to lead the Israelite forces. Others were charged with important tasks that would allow them to be hailed as heroes.
On the day of the great battle, everyone had a job. Everyone, that is, except two men.
Aaron and Hur, although they were intensely interested in the outcome of the battle, could do nothing to assist. After all the responsibilities were divvied out, they remained jobless. Having nothing better to do, they climbed up on the mountain with Moses where they could assume a good vantage point for watching the battle.
I’m sure they felt useless. Possibly they even grumbled a little bit about how their abilities were being overlooked. Maybe they complained that they were missing an opportunity to be recognized in the post-battle celebration.
As the day wore on, they began to notice that Moses was struggling. Apparently hoisting a wooden rod above one’s head for hours at a time is a difficult task for an aging man.
What happened next speaks volumes about the attitudes of Aaron and Hur. They located a decent rock and together pushed it under Moses so he could sit down. Then they kneeled next to him, one on the left and one on the right, allowing Moses to rest his arms on their shoulders. Together they watched as Israel gained the victory.
I cannot help but wonder what was going on in the minds of these two unsung heroes. As the leader, Moses would receive credit for having won the battle. Joshua would go down in the history books as the captain that annihilated the Amalekites. But who cares about two guys who spent all afternoon crouched next to an elderly man with their noses in his armpits?
Very few people would have willingly signed up for such a job. However, Aaron and Hur were willing to engage in the most menial task imaginable because of their desire to serve God.
Do you ever have feelings of insignificance? When you attempt to serve God with all your heart, nothing you do is trivial.
A while ago I came across an anonymous poem that illustrates this point well:
Don’t worry if your job seems small
And your rewards are few.
Remember that the mighty oak
Was once a nut like you.
God will accomplish His will. Our responsibility is to be available for His use, regardless of how trivial the task may seem.
This article ran in the Bremen Enquirer on Thursday, January 16, 2014. The editor has changed so it can now be found under the “pastors” column.
