Psalm 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

The word wrought here in this psalm is p̄āʿal, which means made, do, which by implication is workmanship, crafted by our Master.

I related what made me feel special yesterday. If that was the crowning glory of a life spent, that would in the scheme of life seem small, trite, and meaningless to anyone but me. That is the point. Being special should be about what God has done with us.

Habakkuk 2:3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

These words of a minor prophet held no meaning for me until my time had come. Then!

Habakkuk 2:4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

The time came when I repented of a life that only held one shining moment of achievement in a pop up sacrifice fly to left field. That was my best moment ever. Everything else was a very sad and wasted life. What led me to that moment of earnest tearful regret was the death of my father.

I will not write here today about all of those things I had done which I was ashamed of because they were far too many and painful to admit to anyone by God. That was enough to unleash my Habakkuk 2:3 moment and for the first time in my life God the Father spoke to me and became my Abba Father.

Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

He wiped the slate clean and said to me “What is stopping you from starting over again?”

So I went home that night and picked up a bible for the first time in decades and began.

Where should I begin? Something in me said to go to the gospel of John because John declared that Jesus loved him best. If John felt special, then perhaps I could find the words that would make me feel special there. I started over.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

What does it mean to you to feel special?

For most of us I expect it is someone in our lives that makes us feel special. For others it might be some spectacular accomplishment. Not everyone gets to feel that way. Some of us never get to have that one day when we feel special.

David had Goliath. Moses parted the Red Sea. Noah built an Ark. You get the idea. Then there was Jesus and His life changing moment was dying on the Cross. It didn’t change His life, it changed the world.

Leviticus 27:1-3 English Standard Version

Laws About Vows

1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, 3 then the valuation of a male from twenty years old up to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary.

Imagine if you would that the value of a life spent in service would add up to only fifty nickels. How special would that make you feel? That is not what I would call a “special vow”.

Allow me for a moment to share the crowning glory of my greatest achievement, my Goliath moment. That moment I did something monumentally special. I was fifteen.

My father and I were playing in the annual father and son baseball game. Dad was older then, his legs were shot, he could not run. He was playing left field and was sitting on his heels. I asked Dino Hacket to throw me a pitch face high and a little inside so that I could “Hit one to the old man.” I did that “call your shot moment” pointing in the air above my father and cried out to him “Dontcha move an inch.”

Dino delivered the perfect pitch and I hit a towering pop up fly ball to left field. As I rounded first everyone’s eyes were on my father. He wasn’t moving. His eyes look upward as the ball descends from that great height. As I approached second base he stood up without moving his feet and caught the ball. I had done it. From 250 feet away I had hit a target smaller than a fifty-five gallon drum.

As I rounded second dad threw the ball at my feet and almost hit me. I yelled out to him, “Hey what’s wrong?” He replied with a grin on his face “You made me stand up!”

And that was the greatest accomplishment in my life. My Goliath moment. Some of us don’t even get that.