The Importance of Being Average

John 1:40 (ESV)

^“One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.”

When did being average become something bad?  All that being “average” means is that you are normal.  Yet we live is such a highly competitive culture that to say someone is “average” at something that is seen by many as a huge insult.  Everyone wants to be thought of as “above average.”  When I taught at Concordia, when someone earned a “C” grade that was often a huge catastrophe in that student’s eyes.  I was like that too. In my fourth year at the Seminary I received a “C” on a sermon I had written.  Prior to that I had always received an “A.”  You would have thought the world was coming to an end.  I went up to the professor after the class… so worried about “what I had done wrong.”  He simply looked at me and another student and asked us, “What? Your last year at the seminary and you think you should already preach like the Apostle Paul?”   

Think for a moment with me.  If everyone is “above average” that becomes a meaningless statement.  After all, if everyone is “above average” then there is no such thing as average.    If everyone has to be considered “above average” then it becomes almost impossible for anyone to admit they have a weakness or struggle or addiction in some area of their lives.  Then you find it hard to admit that struggle or to seek help.  Why?  Because you think you are the only one who has that struggle.  Then, instead of getting help with whatever our particular struggle is we deny it, hide it, cover it up.  The more we hide our struggles the worse they become.  Shame only grows when kept in hiding.  The sad thing is that such suffering and isolation is needless… because to have struggles, and weaknesses is normal.  It’s average.  Everyone of us has them in different areas of our lives.  For such people, the discovery that you are normal is one of the most freeing, healing moments in life.  “I’m normal.  I have the struggle.  So do a lot of other people.  It’s okay to admit it.  It’s okay to get help.” 

Being average is actually a good thing.  It’s average people, like you and me, whom God uses to make life happen in this world.  A great example of this in the Bible is the Apostle Andrew.  Did you know he is the first disciple to follow Jesus? Yet He was not one of the leaders.  There are no great, outstanding sermons by Andrew recorded in Scripture.  In fact, almost every time Andrew is referred to in Scripture he is called “Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.”  He was so “ordinary” that he only stood out because of his relationship with Peter.  Otherwise people took little notice of him.  Most of us chafe at being referred to as the brother or sister of… We want to be noticed because of who we are, not because of who our sibling is.  Yet Andrew never seems to complain.  He seems fine with being average.  And Jesus seems fine with having average Andrew as one of His disciples.  Indeed think about this, without average Andrew, there would be no Apostle Peter.  Andrew is the one who says to Peter, “We have found the Messiah.”  He is the one who introduces Peter to Jesus.  When the disciples are worried about feeding the huge, hungry crowd, Andrew is the one who tells Jesus about the boy who has some bread and fish.  When the Greeks come wanting to meet Jesus, Andrew is the one who brings them to Jesus. 

My point is, being one of God’s “average Andrews” is a blessing.  God does most of His work through ordinary believers like you and me, not the Billy Grahams or the Apostle Paul’s of the world.  Attention is so often focused on the Pastor who preaches or the soloist who sings.  But it’s the ushers, the altar guild members, the lay readers, the acolytes… the “Andrew’s” of the church who make the service happen.  Where would the great doctor be without the nurses, the lab techs and the receptionist?  It used to drive me crazy when the “professors” took for granted all the staff people who make the University run.

Yes there is something special about each one of us.  But none of us is above average or exception at everything, or even at most things.  In most areas of life you and are average.  We are simply “normal.”  For all of us there are also areas where we are weak and perhaps “below average.”  Just ask me about chemistry. It’s okay.  God loves, calls and makes great things happen through average people like you and me… gave His son for us… has prepared a place in heaven for us… knows our names and counts the hairs on our heads.  Indeed the Bible tells us that by working through average people like you and me, God makes it crystal clear that “the all surpassing power is from God and not from us.”  Being average, normal people in God’s service means God gets all the glory He deserves.  That’s the importance of being average. Amen