I’m sipping tea from the beautiful glass mug that my four-year old gave me for Christmas. Chai spice, because it’s my favourite. The worn study Bible that lies open on the bed beside me used to belong to my mother. I tried to get another Bible a couple of years ago, but the pages were all stuck together with newness. This old Bible? It just falls right open. It has history.

I’m starting a new blog series, I think. This one is in addition to my series on Charlotte Mason homeschooling (which is overdue for a post). This series, however, isn’t about homeschooling at all.

It’s about judges.

As I sip tea and study them, I hope you’ll pull up a chair, pour yourself a cup and join me. These men (and woman) are amazing.

Beginning with Ehud.

He’s the second judge mentioned in the book of Judges. We can find Ehud in Judges 3:15-30. This was always one of my favourite stories when I was young, although I’m not sure why—it’s a little gory. In retrospect, I think it might be because Ehud was different.

I was different too. At least, that’s what the other kids told me—only the words they used were much less kind. I often wondered why God couldn’t have made me like everyone else. Why did I have to be the weird kid?

One day, Ehud went to visit Eglon, the Moabite king who was oppressing the Israelites. Hidden under his cloak was a sword.

“Ehud bound [his sword] on his right thigh under his cloak.” (Judges 3:16)

Trying to sneak a sword into the palace of an evil dictator is daring if not downright nuts. Of course Ehud got caught, right? I mean, when he entered the palace to see the king, it’s only logical that the guards would have checked to make sure he wasn’t carrying a weapon.

But those guards weren’t checking the right side. They didn’t bother, since most people were right-handed and drew from the left side.

Ehud, however, wasn’t most people.

He didn’t fit the mold.

He was left-handed.

This guy wasn’t different by accident either. In Judges 3:15, we learn that God specifically raised Ehud up to deliver His people in response to their cries to Him. Please let that sink in for a minute. God raised him up.  God intentionally broke the mold so He could raise up a man who had what it took to get the job done. Ehud’s left-handedness was a gift.

So what happened?

In short, after easily sneaking his sword into the palace, Ehud was able to arrange a one-on-one meeting with Eglon, kill the oppressive king, escape to the hill country of Ephraim and lead the Israelites to victory.

All in a day’s work.

All because God made him different.

All because God had a brilliant, unexpected plan to use those differences to set His people free.

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
    How vast is the sum of them!

(Psalm 139:13-17)

Perhaps you’ve been told you’re weird. Unusual. Quirky. Perhaps you feel out of place or like no one really gets you.

Do you view your differences as liabilities? Or do you view them as gifts?

God created you for a purpose and He wants to use you for His glory.

The thing that makes you different, when surrendered to Jesus, could very well be the thing He’ll use to set other people free.