Where Are The Donkeys?

In 1 Samuel 9, Saul is having an ordinary, but frustrating day. Some donkeys have gone missing and Saul’s father sends him out to go looking for them. That is just an ordinary thing in a mundane day or week for Saul. What’s so important about looking for donkeys? Nothing really but it’s an example of God’s guiding hand, and how God is at work even in the most ordinary details of your life. God is sovereign over what appears to be an ordinary event.

With no success finding the donkeys, Saul says “Come, let us go back” (v.5) or my Father will be worried about us instead of his lost donkeys. Saul seems to be hesitant to carry out the task his father sent him to do. His first words suggest he is a quitter. His tendency is to give up. The fact that he decides to do and follow what the servant with him says, tells us Saul is more of a follower-not a leader.

Little does Saul know that God is taking a regular, normal event for Saul and turning it into a spectacular event. So, Saul out looking for lost donkeys, ends up looking for help to find the donkeys from Samuel the prophet. But while Saul was there he found himself unexpectedly anointed by Samuel to become Israel’s first king.

God used an ordinary event to bring about the extraordinary! God will use ordinary, normal, common situations and events to invite you into some extraordinary callings. Not only was Saul called into an extraordinary event, but his character (up to that point) contradicted his abilities as a leader. But, Saul was God‘s chosen leader and God knew he was not capable of doing it on his own but he called him anyway. Saul went from looking for donkeys to becoming a king!

What are you missing in your ordinary day that God has put in front of you to turn into a extraordinary event? Don’t use the excuse that you don’t have the ability because that doesn’t matter to God. His Holy Spirit gives us power to do what God has asked even if it contradicts our character or abilities. What about you or your day is ordinary that He can turn into extraordinary?