God is in the business of using "extras"

It was a pleasant surprise I must say when the top 8 finalists of American Idol 7 belted out "Shout to the Lord" during the Idol gives back show and also the results night. It really got me thinking as to how Darlene Zschech when she penned this song very probably did not expect her song to top charts, win awards, appear in more than 20 albums, be sang by over 20 million people all around the world each sunday, and of course the most recently, have it performed "live" to millions or billions around the world on American Idol.

Just a short recount of how the song came about. The clip can be found at http://www.theheartofworship.org/stories/Story-196-ShouttotheLord-Zschech.mp3.
She wrote the song during a "hard personal time" and was just sitting at what she called an "awful piano" she got when she was 5. It was out of tune (like mine). She opened her bible to Psalms 96 and started to worship the Lord. After about 20 min, the song emerged. Realising it could be a worship song, she went to her music pastor, shy and embarrassed. At that time, she didn't even view herself as a songwriter and was very embarrassed even to play to anybody. She took a long time to even start playing the song to her music pastor but eventually got him to stand with his back facing her and told him he could change anything about the song.

Well the song was played first as an offering song during a service but that didn't stop people from standing up and worship the Lord. After the service, people thanked her for the touching lyrics that allowed them to express their emotions to the Lord.

What's my reason for saying all these? You see, God IS in the business of using "extras", by which I mean people who don't think they amount to anything or feel they can never do any great for God or be used by Him mightily. Some might feel they are always the bridesmaid (or best man) but never the Bride (or the Groom). Worser still, some people feel they can only be doormats. Alright, back to Darlene's story.

It is simply amazing how God used a shy and very embarrassed lady to write a song that touched and still touches millions of people around the world. I guess perhaps after the song was sung in her church a couple of times, she might have thought "ok that's about it", or after it got recorded in a few albums, she might have gone "thank God the song came this far". But she probably did not realise God had so much more for her, mind-blowing plans. performed live on American Idol?! WOW.

So, I just got two things to say:

(1) If you're feeling down and discouraged or like Darlene, having a "hard personal time", beautiful things and songs can arise out of these darkest moments. Just go into worship. Deep intimate worship. Tell God how lovely He is and how much you love Him and that it's regardless of what you're going through.

(2) Don't underestimate what God can do in you and through you. God uses so-called "extras", in mind-blowing ways. Yes, even shy and very embarrassed ones. In fact, I've a feeling He enjoys using those. After all He did say He uses the foolish & weak things of the world to confound the wise & strong. He loves to do the exceeding and spring unexpected surprises. He's in the business of using zeros. The question is: Are we game enough for it?