Back to school, back to school

All across the country kids are heading back to school. Kindergartners to college freshman with anxious mommas in tow are heading off into their brave new worlds to do something they've been preparing for all of their lives.

The Old Testament book of Judges tells the story of Gideon, a man called to be a military man serving and leading his people from their enemies -- enemies who raided the land of Gideon's kinsmen, devastating everything in their path, stealing their crops and livestock and in general created a feeling of terror. It was a time of great fear and trepidation, never knowing if you would have enough for the day or if there would be a day to have. In the midst of this fear-driven environment the Lord called Gideon to rescue his people, to enter into what he had been prepared for his entire life. He just didn't know it.

Days before the battle that would define Gideon, he goes to the Lord and asks for a sign that he is really doing the right thing. He lays out a fleece and says, "That if it's wet and the ground is dry, I'll believe you." It was. So, a second time he asks, "if the fleece is dry and the ground is wet, I'll believe you." It was. Now what was he going to do?

Often the greatest hindrance to what God wants to do in our lives isn't what is happening around us but what is happening within us.

It's easy to look at all the things both good and bad that have happened to us and say "these are the reasons that my life is the way it is. I am dysfunctional because I come from a dysfunctional family." It's hard to say the reason nothing is changing around me is because I'm not changing.

We, not our circumstances, are the greatest obstruction to what God wants to do through our lives. That's not to say that moments in your life -- good and tragic -- are defining. They, however, do not have to define you.

Gideon offered the fleece because he doubted an amazing God could work through the life of a feeble man. God's greatest glory is often displayed through ordinary people who are willing to say, "have your extraordinary way in me."

Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at www.robhurtgen.wordpress.com.